Aon pegs latest SCS losses in hundreds of millions of US dollars

By Rebecca Delaney

May 9 - (The Insurer) - Severe convective storm (SCS) activity in the U.S. and Europe over the past week are expected to generate economic losses in the hundreds of millions, according to Aon's weekly cat report on Friday.

Two severe weather outbreaks hit the southern and eastern U.S. this month, one from May 1 to May 3 and the other from May 5 to May 7. Texas and Georgia were among the worst affected, and notable flooding occurred in southeastern Louisiana.

Properties were impacted by hail and wind damage, with material losses from multiple tornadoes in central Texas.

Aon's weekly cat recap has forecast that both total economic and insured losses will likely be in the hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars, mainly owing to straight-line wind impacts.

The past seven days also saw isolated storms across multiple European countries between May 2 and May 4, including strong thunderstorms in Spain and Portugal.

Hailstorms in Paris led to considerable traffic disruptions, including the suspension of flights at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Heavy rain was also recorded across Germany, Austria, Czechia and southwestern Poland.

The focus of activity later shifted to southeastern Europe with the low-pressure system Jürgen, which produced locally severe storm activity.

Aon said economic losses are expected to aggregate to hundreds of millions of euros across multiple regions, and that the majority will be attributed to large hailstones that caused significant damage to crops and vehicles.

Central-eastern Spain, specifically the provinces of Albacete, Teruel, and Ciudad Real, experienced severe impacts, with agricultural damage affecting approximately 15,000 hectares of crops along the Jiloca River.