Queensland’s October 2020 hailstorm industry loss raised 6% to A$1.3bn

The insurance and reinsurance market loss from a hailstorm event in October 2020 that struck south-east Queensland, Australia has been raised 6% to A$1.3 billion by PERILS AG.

The hailstorm was originally designated as the first catastrophe to strike Australia of the 2020-21 season by the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), with an expectation that it could drive a relatively significant loss to insurers and likely erode some reinsurance aggregates.

PERILS originally pegged the potential insurance and reinsurance market industry loss at A$1.231 billion, for the hailstorms which occurred on October 31st 2020, an event also known as the “South East Queensland Halloween Hailstorms.”

This estimate is based on insured property and motor market loss data collected from insurers operating in Australia.

The hail struck after severe thunderstorms developed over South East Queensland during the afternoon of October 31st, with hail as large as 14 cm in diameter reported in some suburbs.

It was described as an extreme event for the region, given the size of the hail and the extensive damage caused.

Severe thunderstorms struck much of South East Queensland, including the surrounding areas of Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, but a corridor from Amberley through to the northern suburbs of Logan near Brisbane was the area hardest hit by the hail event.

Giant hail was also recorded in the Gympie area, with stones up to 7cm in diameter reported. In addition to hail, damaging winds were also experienced between Redcliffe through to Kingston near Brisbane, with gusts over 110 km/h recorded around Moreton Bay region.

PERILS second estimate raises the total 6%, to an estimated market loss of A$1.3 billion (around US $997m).

As we revealed at the end of last year, a number of insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds invested into collateralised reinsurance positions that are exposed to catastrophe events in Australia reported negative performance for November on the back of reserving for hail storms and severe weather events.

It’s likely this included some impacts from this Halloween hailstorm that struck the Queensland area.