Nearly 70 tornadotouchdowns and up to baseball-sized hail damaged U.S. residentialand commercial property and vehicles in April 2018. (Photo:Shutterstock)

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Impact Forecasting, AonBenfield's catastrophe model development team, hasreported that five separate storm systems caused severethunderstorms across the United States duringApril.

Related: Tornado and severe weather insurancechecklist

The strongest of April storm affected the Plains, Midwest,Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and the Northeast, with nearly 70 tornadotouchdowns and up to baseball-sized hail that damaged residentialand commercial property and vehicles.

Snowfall, dry conditions, wildfires

The same system also led to anomalous snowfall in the UpperMidwest and New England, while dry conditions behind the stormcaused major wildfires in the Plains, notablyin Oklahoma.

According to Impact Forecasting, total combined economic lossesfrom convective storm-related damage in the U. S. during April wereestimated at $2.3 billion, with public and private insurersexpected to pay at least $1.5 billion inclaims.

Peril in Europe

Michal Lorinc, an analyst within Impact Forecasting'scatastrophe insight team, said, "As the peak of the severe weatherseason approaches in the United States, it is worthhighlighting the impact of the thunderstorm perilin Europe. As in the U.S., hail has been particularlydamaging to European residential and commercial property, as wellas vehicles, with several historical events prompting insurancepayouts in excess of a billion euros. Given this risk, ImpactForecasting will soon release a hail model that includes coveragefor several European countries, to help our clients better preparefor the potential events."

For more, see the Global Catastrophe Recap, April 2018.

Victoria Prussen Spears, Esq., ([email protected]) is associate directorof FC&S Legal, editor of the InsuranceCoverage Law Report, and senior vice president atMeyerowitz Communications Inc.