PERILS has released a final industry loss footprint of £368 million for the flooding that occurred in several regions of the UK in February 2020.
The floods, which primarily affected Wales, the Midlands and Yorkshire from February 09-29, 2020, were caused by three extratropical cyclones – Ciara, Dennis and Jorge. PERILS’ final estimate is slightly lower than the previous one at £375 million, released on August 31, 2020, based on claims data collected from the majority of affected insurance companies.
The catastrophe insurance data firm’s fourth and final report on the event provided a detailed breakdown of property losses by CRESTA zone, with further data subdivisions to show various lines of business such as buildings, contents and business interruption losses. It also includes complementary data such as damage as a percentage of sums insured, as well as flood and rainfall intensity.
The losses from the February 2020 floods were the highest in a period of slightly over four years, since December 2015, when the Desmond and Eva-Frank floods cost the UK insurance industry a total of £1.1 billion at the time. Both events are dwarfed by the 2007 June/July floods, which cost £3 billion at the time.
“While the industry loss from the February 2020 Floods was not exceptional per se, it contributed to other weather-related losses experienced during the winter 2019/2020,” said Dalida Bachmann, head of client relationships at PERILS. “We estimate that the floods in November and December 2019 and wind-related losses from storms Ciara, Dennis and Jorge in February 2020 have cost the UK insurance industry approximately £410 million. Adding this amount to the £368 million loss figure for the February 2020 floods, the resulting total industry loss figure from both wind and flood during the 2019/2020 UK winter is approximately £778 million.
“This is in sharp contrast to the current winter 2020/2021 during which no windstorm or flood event has exceeded the PERILS loss capturing threshold of €200 million to date.”
