PERILS, the independent Zurich-based organisation that provides industry-wide catastrophe insurance data, has published its fourth and final industry loss estimate for Windstorm Éowyn, which affected the British Isles on 24 and 25 January 2025, with PERILS stating that the final estimate of the insured market loss stands at €765 million.
Earlier estimates
published by PERILS showed a steady increase in insured losses, rising from €619 million six weeks after the event to €696 million at three months and €747 million at six months, before reaching the final figure of €765 million. PERILS explains that the estimate relates to property lines of business and is based on loss information submitted by insurers impacted by the storm.
In its final report, PERILS sets out property loss figures by country and by CRESTA zone, using area codes for the UK and county-level data for Ireland, with losses split between personal lines property and commercial lines property.
The organisation notes that, when used alongside the PERILS industry exposure database and wind data available at the same level of detail, the resulting industry loss footprint supports analysis of wind vulnerability for insured property risks across the UK and Ireland.
PERILS reports that Windstorm Éowyn brought extremely strong winds to the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Central Belt of Scotland, with gusts of up to 185 km/h recorded in Ireland, exceeding previous records.
The organisation says the storm caused widespread disruption, with approximately 1.8 million premises affected by power outages and more than 1.4 million people experiencing a loss of mobile phone coverage. PERILS further reports that thousands of trees were uprooted, heavy vehicles were overturned and roofs were removed from buildings, and that two fatalities occurred as a result of storm-related incidents.
PERILS states that insured losses in Ireland reached €316 million, making Éowyn the most significant windstorm loss for the Irish insurance market in at least 45 years. In the UK, PERILS places the industry loss at £378 million, a level which PERILS says is consistent with losses recorded or exceeded on two occasions over the past two decades.
Commenting on the results, Luzi Hitz, Product Manager at PERILS, added: “Given the rare intensity of Éowyn, the robustness of the loss estimates over the last 12 month is quite remarkable. Early insured loss estimates by insurers are typically based on insights from similar past events and if no precedent exists, projections can be more challenging.
“Therefore, the 24% increase from €619 million six weeks post-event to €765 million one year post-event, and in particular the 10% increase from €696 million three month post-event to the twelve month figure, represent a relatively modest loss development. This stability underscores the robustness of the Cat loss estimation practices in the UK and Irish insurance markets.”
He continued: “While it did not dominate the headlines for long, Windstorm Éowyn is a valuable event from a data perspective. It provides rare data points for exceptionally high wind speeds. Further, it was predominantly a dry event with little contribution from water-induced losses. As such, Éowyn serves as an ideal data source for calibrating vulnerability functions at extreme gust speeds for which data is generally limited.”
