weather risk

Global reinsurance firm Swiss Re’s first-quarter 2016 results were impacted by weather derivative losses and further adverse development from the New Zealand earthquakes, which could signal impacts more broadly, perhaps affecting some insurance-linked securities (ILS) players.

U.S. insured losses from winter weather, convective storms and floods have reached $7.4 billion in 2016 already, according to Steve Bowen of Impact Forecasting, a total that will likely rise further with this week’s weather-warned storms and as we enter peak season for severe thunderstorm risk.

Recent P&C market commentary from Credit Suisse highlights outsized catastrophe losses for insurers from Texas hailstorms in March, suggesting that the overall industry loss, and any reinsurance or ILS impact, from these events could be higher than estimates suggest.

Another devastating hailstorm has struck Texas, the fourth major insurance and reinsurance loss in a month, with an April 12th hail storm striking the San Antonio area set to become the biggest hail insurance loss in the state’s history and push recent insured losses towards $3 billion or higher.

The Insurance Council of Texas reports that for the third time in a month severe hail storms and damaging winds have impacted cities in the state. The Insurance Council also revealed that insurance and possibly reinsurance industry losses from the previous two events could hit $1.3 billion.

Insurance and perhaps reinsurance industry losses from recent hail storm damage in Texas, suffered during outbreaks of severe convective weather in the last two weeks, has reached at least $1.1 billion, according to the Insurance Council.

Hail storms caused by severe thunderstorms in the Dallas and Fort Worth area of Texas on Thursday 17th March 2016 are now expected to result in over $600 million of insurance claims, according to the states Insurance Council.

Farmers in Kenya are set to benefit from the launch of a new innovative, index insurance scheme which utilises advanced technology and satellite data to assist agricultural workers in the face of flooding and drought conditions.

Three Argentinian enterprises have joined forces to develop climate index futures to help agricultural producers to better protect themselves against the impacts of severe or inclement weather, with drought the first targeted product launch.

Some weather derivative contracts have been impacted by the unusually warm winter conditions seen in the fourth-quarter of 2015 and which have continued into this year, with January 2016 seeing more temperature records broken.