The severe convective storms that hit France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy in late August caused an insured loss of €3.296 billion, according to PERILS.
That makes it Europe’s costliest convective storm event in the Zurich-based data provider’s records.
The initial estimate covers property and motor losses from the storms, known as SCS Raphaela, between 26 and 28 August. An updated figure is due on November 28.
The total surpasses the €2.186 billion PERILS estimated for the mid-July storms across the same four countries. When IB reported that estimate in September, it was the largest SCS loss in PERILS’ European record.
A cold front linked to a low-pressure system named Raphaela swept east across Europe, meeting exceptionally warm, humid air left by the preceding heatwave. The result was a series of storms, including supercells, which are rotating thunderstorms capable of large hail, destructive winds and intense rain.
The storms started in western France on August 26, hit central and eastern France the next day, and reached Switzerland, southern Germany and northern Italy on August 28. Hail of 4cm to 8cm was reported in all four countries. In Italy’s Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions, hailstones reached 13cm. The storms also brought strong gusts and flash flooding.
In Switzerland, a hail swathe ran from Lake Geneva to Lake Constance, making Raphaela one of the largest catastrophe losses on record for the Swiss market. In France, the Besançon area was particularly badly hit. PERILS said losses in France, Italy and Germany were less exceptional and below the extreme levels seen in recent years. No deaths were reported, but damage to property and cars was extensive.
PERILS’ figure is well above early market estimates. Gallagher Re had put the late-August outbreak at around €2.5 billion.
Taken together, the two summer events have now cost European insurers more than €5.4 billion in property and motor losses, and the July figure is still being updated.
Luzi Hitz, product manager at PERILS, said both events came out of preceding heatwaves that supplied heat and humidity for storms to form.
“As the climate looks unlikely to cool in the foreseeable future, the potential exists for multi-billion SCS events in Europe to become the new normal,” said Hitz.
For primary insurers, convective storms are largely a retained loss. Unlike windstorms or major floods, hail events often fall below catastrophe reinsurance attachment points. They are typically absorbed through net retentions or aggregate covers, if they’re absorbed at all. Two multi-billion-euro events in one summer put that model under strain.
That is likely to shape the January 1 renewals. Cedants hit by repeated frequency losses may push for lower attachment points or more aggregate protection, while reinsurers will weigh how far SCS assumptions in their models need to rise.
For brokers, the events are a reminder to check hail and storm deductibles, motor own-damage cover and business interruption terms for clients in exposed regions. The Swiss and northern Italian losses in particular show how much damage hail can do to vehicle fleets, agriculture and commercial property.
