Weather: Still the Star of the Show In Risk Management Forecast

Weather and climate are the wildest of wild cards for insurers and risk managers—and this inherent uncertainty is certain to increase in coming years, according to the latest consensus report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Jeff Masters, chief meteorologist for Weather Underground, offers a simple explanation of the complex science underlying the IPCC report: “When you warm up the atmosphere that means there’s more energy available for severe weather events—so it makes sense that more things could happen,” he said.

And thanks to more things happening, “Extreme weather events are having a disruptive impact on the insurance industry,” according to a  Forbes.com article on the IPCC report. “Climate-related economic disruption also compounds risks to global investments.”