Catastrophe Risks

Forecasters at AccuWeather are predicting another above-average North Atlantic hurricane season in 2021, though their forecast calls for a less active season than 2020's record season. AccuWeather's team predicts that this year's Atlantic hurricane season will see 16–20 named storms, of which 7–10 will be hurricanes. Read More

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is upgrading its Global Forecast System weather model to boost weather forecasting capabilities across the United States. According to NOAA, the upgrades will improve hurricane genesis forecasting, modeling for snowfall location, heavy rainfall forecasts, and overall model performance. Read More

Catastrophe risk modeling firm RMS will launch a suite of climate change models to help users assess the impacts of climate change on physical assets and their businesses. While most RMS models already incorporate the impact of climate change, the new models go further with forward-looking predictive insights and analysis. Read More

The Danish Red Cross has issued a humanitarian catastrophe bond covering volcanic eruption through a Guernsey insurance-linked securities (ILS) structure. The catastrophe bond, which covers the risk of eruption of 10 volcanoes across 3 continents, raised $3 million from specialist catastrophe bond investors to support humanitarian aid following an eruption. Read More

With an above-average number of natural disasters and a global pandemic, 2020 highlighted the need to invest in risk management planning for the possibility of coinciding extreme events, a new Aon report shows. Overall, 2020 was marked by 416 notable natural disaster events and $268 billion in economic losses. Read More