Severe Convective Storm insured losses ~$5.5bn from Jun 10th-19th by KCC

Insurance and perhaps reinsurance market losses from a spate of Severe Convective Storm (SCS) activity that struck the Central and Southern United States between June 10th and 19th are now estimated at around $5.5 billion, according to catastrophe modeller Karen Clark & Company (KCC).

Previously, KCC had reported that an outbreak of hailstorms in Texas from severe convective weather between June 10th to 13th was expected to drive more than $1 billion in insurance industry losses.

Now, the catastrophe risk modelling firm has expanded on that, to incorporate the wider severe convective and thunderstorm type weather events that had occurred.

Using its KCC SCS Reference Model, the company now estimates that the insured loss from this Severe Convective Storm (SCS) outbreak will be close to $5.5 billion, based on privately insured damage to residential, commercial, and industrial properties and automobiles.

During the outbreak, KCC says that the prolonged severe weather system that began on June 10th and persisted until June 19th saw more than one thousand reports of hail and damaging wind gusts filed throughout the Central and Southern US.

25 states were affected during this outbreak, with dozens of instances of softball-sized hail reported across Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Georgia, while extreme wind gusts exceeding hurricane-force were also measured throughout the South.

Hail and strong winds were the primary drivers of losses, but KCC also notes the occurrence of a number of tornadoes during the stretch of severe convective weather.

In total there were 1,557 reports of hail, 93 reports of tornadoes, and 2,719 reports of damaging wind gusts from this event.

It was Texas that suffered the most damage from this SCS event, followed by Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, KCC explained.

Out of the 1,557 hail reports, more than 18% were severe with hail of more than 2 inches in diameter.

Texas saw the largest hail, with 5.5 inches recorded, followed by Mississippi (4.75”) and Arkansas (4.88”), which both came close to state records of 5”.

In addition, more than 40 hurricane-force wind gusts were reported across the South during the outbreak, while supercell thunderstorms drove a mesoscale convective system across the state of Oklahoma producing a 100 mph wind gust near Tulsa.

The insured losses add to a costly and ongoing severe weather season in the United States, that has been driving relatively high property and auto losses for primary insurers.

Allstate has reported high levels of catastrophe losses in both April and May, with severe weather a major driver.

It appears that June could see another high loss burden for those exposed to these severe convective storms, which could add to the primary carriers aggregation of losses.