Windstorm Goretti, also known as Elli, has been confirmed as the second-largest European windstorm loss of the 2025/26 season, with PERILS' third industry loss estimate putting the insurance market loss at €468 million.
The update lands as UK insurers separately grapple with a record year for domestic weather claims, even though Goretti itself left only a modest UK footprint.
The €468 million figure is a slight reduction on the €479 million estimate PERILS issued three months after the event, close to the initial €467 million estimate published six weeks after the storm struck. As per PERILS' schedule, the fourth and final estimate will be released on January 9, 2027, 12 months after the event end date.
Windstorm Goretti tore through southwest England, northern France and Belgium on January 8 and 9, 2026. Cornwall in southwest England and the French departments of Manche, Calvados and Seine-Maritime were the areas most affected, while Belgium experienced comparatively limited impacts.
The loss estimate covers the property and motor lines of business and is based on data collected directly from affected insurers.
For the first time, PERILS' industry loss footprint for a European windstorm includes motor loss data broken down at CRESTA-zone level. Motor losses accounted for 8% of total losses in Belgium, compared with 5% in France and just 1% in the UK. Despite the disparity between markets, PERILS said a clear correlation between wind speed and loss severity was visible in both France and Belgium.
The low UK share reflects the storm's track, which stayed south of the country and left Cornwall and the Channel Islands as the main areas of impact, sparing most of the UK mainland. The report also breaks down property losses into residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural segments by CRESTA zone, giving insurers sharper insight into wind vulnerability in France and Belgium in particular.
"With insured losses of EUR 468 million, Goretti was not exceptional from a European market perspective as Windstorm losses of a similar magnitude typically occur every one to two years," said Christoph Oehy (pictured), CEO of PERILS. "The inclusion of motor loss data for European windstorms is an important enhancement to the PERILS database. This is particularly valuable in the context of severe convective storms, where motor losses resulting from hail damage can account for a significant proportion of total insured losses."
While Goretti's own UK impact was contained, the update is worth reading alongside the wider pressure on the UK claims environment this year.
According to the Association of British Insurers, UK insurers paid out a record £6.1 billion in property claims in 2025, the highest annual total since the ABI began collecting the data, with weather-related property claims reaching £1.2 billion, up 14% on 2024. Storm damage to homes rose 32% to £244 million, and the average storm payout climbed to £2,450, £750 higher than in 2024.
That pressure has continued into 2026, with the average household claim reaching £6,340 in the first quarter, up 20% year-on-year, driven by extreme weather, subsidence and rebuild cost inflation. The Met Office separately rated Storm Eowyn, which struck earlier in 2026, as the UK's most powerful windstorm in over a decade, a reminder that Goretti's contained UK impact is no guarantee the domestic market is out of the woods.
Loss adjusters said the pressure is structural rather than cyclical. Neil Mather of Gallagher Bassett has pointed to growing claim complexity, with storm damage increasingly combined with flood ingress or fire-related losses. Claims Consortium Group has separately flagged that 2026 soil moisture conditions are tracking those seen before 2025's claims surge, raising the prospect of a fourth surge event in eight years.
For reinsurance buyers and catastrophe modellers, the addition of motor loss data alongside the CRESTA-zone breakdown offers a more granular basis for validating vulnerability curves, even where a market's own share of an event's losses is small. Windstorm Nils, which struck southwest France a month after Goretti, has since overtaken it as the season's costliest event, with losses estimated at €767 million. The two storms are likely to feature in technical discussions on correlation and multi-hazard modelling ahead of the 2027 renewal season.
