Cars drive on the road in snow storm.
Natural disasters caused global economic losses of about $37 billion in the first quarter of this year, the lowest level since 2015, according to a new report from Aon.
Economic losses were 43% below the 21st century Q1 average. That's largely due to strong insurance coverage in the regions affected by natural disasters during the period.
Insured losses for Q1 were about $20 billion, about 6% higher than average. Most of those losses — 79% — occurred in the United States.
Most of the losses were due to flooding and severe convective storms. A single SCS event in March in the United States caused $5 billion in economic losses and $4 billion in insured losses.
Winter Storm Fern also took a toll. The storm, which brought freezing rain, heavy snow and severe storms to much of the central and eastern U.S. in January, killed 130 people and resulted in $4.6 billion in economic losses and $3.5 billion in insured losses. Fern is set to become the fourth costliest U.S. winter storm on record.
In Europe, Portugal's Windstorm Kristin was its costliest insurance event on record, with about $1 billion in insured losses.
Overall, 12 events in Q1 caused more than $1 billion in economic losses, above the average of nine, and five events caused more than $1 billion in insured losses, in line with the average of four.
Photo credit: Artic_photo/Shutterstock
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.