PERILS has placed an initial estimate of insured property market loss for extratropical cyclone Friederike at about EUR 1.5 billion, with the majority of losses occurring in Germany and the Netherlands.
The cyclone struck Europe between the 17th to 19th of January 2018, leaving significant damage across the British Isles, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
Eduard Held, Head of Products at PERILS, said; “while the market loss from Windstorm Friederike of EUR 1’465 m is significant, we estimate that there have been 12 European windstorm events in the past 40 years which would have exceeded this figure had they occurred today.
“These events include 87J, Daria, Herta, Vivian, Wiebke, Anatol, Lothar, Martin, Jeanett, Kyrill, Klausand Xynthia. On this basis, we would estimate that the Europe-wide market loss level of Friederike would be reached or exceeded on average once every 3-4 years.
“For Germany and the Netherlands alone, however, the return period for the respective market loss levels would be higher.”
European windstorm Friederike, which struck parts of Ireland and the United Kingdom before moving towards continental Europe, generated extraordinarily strong winds in the Netherlands and Germany, where a record gust 203 km/h was record.
Catastrophe risk modeller AIR Worldwide has put total insured loss estimates from Friederike at between €1.3 billion (US$1.6bn) and €2.6 billion (US$3.3bn).
PERILS said that it will make an updated estimate of the Friederike market available on 17th April 2018, three months after the event start date.











