February Stoms Caused $1 Billion Insured Losses: Aon Benfield’s Cat Report

Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe model development center of excellence at Aon Benfield, has released its latest edition of its monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report, which reviews the natural disaster perils that occurred worldwide during February 2014. The month’s wild weather led to insurance payouts of more than $1 billion globally. The nastiest weather wasn’t in the U.S. or the UK, but in Japan, which experienced record snowfall during the month, causing the deaths of 37 people and injuring more than 2,750 others, mostly as a result of traffic-related accidents. “Insurers forecast total claims payouts of around JPY60 billion ($585 million), while economic losses were estimated to approach JPY120 billion ($1.2 billion),” the report said.