Windstorm Andrea brought strong winds to the UK late Wednesday and early Thursday causing transportation disruption (bridge closures and tree fall on the networks), power outages (900 homes lost power in Nottingham) and tree fall (Suffolk fire service has reported 60 fallen trees as at 5 January) across central and southern UK. Gusty winds brought additional tree damage across parts of Europe.

“The large scale weather patterns have produced several small to moderate windstorms in the last six weeks affecting parts of Scotland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark with a heightened frequency that is characteristic of what is known as windstorm clustering,” said Neena Saith, director of catastrophe response at RMS.

“The 2011/2012 windstorm season is shaping up to be fairly active compared to the past 10 or so years in northern Europe,” she continued. “The moderate nature of the 2011/12 storms, however, means that so far damage has been very light, particularly compared to historical clustering series such as in 1990 and 1999, when a highly positive North Atlantic Oscillation brought a number of much more intense large-scale windstorms across Northern Europe – the potential for which is of most concern to the insurance world.”

Studies of the windstorm climate in northern Europe show that large-scale atmospheric conditions can vary considerably from one season to the next, with some years favorable for high activity levels, and others less so.

The latest storms have led to significant insurance costs certain parts of the UK. "While it is still too early to put a potential cost on the damage caused, it is likely the UK storms will exacerbate the recent rises in household premiums in the regions where the storm hit most severely. For other parts of the UK, we would expect household premiums to continue to rise at the current rate - about 3% on average," says Mohammad Khan, insurance partner at PwC.

“Business interruption claims have increased this year due to catastrophic claims in both the UK and abroad, as well as the UK riots. We would expect that this may lead to increases in premiums but companies should also look to the coverage of their business interruption policies especially if they are exposed to suppliers who are based abroad."

Although there has been a spike in motor insurance claims, he said, they don't expect motor rates to rise significantly due to strong price competition and the fact that traditionally weather events have not significantly affected motor rates.

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