Insurance companies spent a historic amount in 2024 on claims related to lightning damage.
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Harsh thunderstorms have been unleashing havoc in Germany, taking a toll on the built environment. Last year, this toll amounted to an astounding 350 million euros, with insurers footing the bill for their clients' lightning-related losses - a record high for two decades.
According to the General German Insurance Association (GDV), insurers handed over close to 350 million euros to cover damages such as pulverized roofs and computer fiascoes due to lightning strikes in 2024 - the highest sum in twenty years. Nearly 220,000 complaints were lodged, giving us a rough estimate of a lightning strike occurring every 2.5 minutes on average.
In 2023, insurers doled out approximately 300 million euros for 220,000 lightning and surge damage complaints. This amount was last seen in 2002 and '03.
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The average claim amount has been on a steady upswing, jumping to a new peak in 2024: Insurers shelled out around 1600 euros per lightning strike complaint, an increase of 200 euros compared to the previous year. "This surge in costs is primarily due to buildings becoming increasingly advanced and expensive," GDV CEO Jörg Asmussen stated, adding, "These tech inflations are leaving insurance pockets lighter every year."
In 2024, around 210,000 ground strikes were recorded in Germany, slightly higher than the 195,000 strikes in 2023. About two-thirds of all lightning strikes are cloud-to-cloud, or "sheet" lightning.
The month with the most lightning strikes in 2024 was June, racking up approximately 62,000. Storms tend to creep up during summer, thanks to summer heat and humidity leading to thunderstorm clouds' formation.
Source: ntv.de, als/AFP
While there's no direct confirmation from the GDV regarding a significant increase in insurance claims for lightning damage in Germany for '24, broader trends and context can help explain this scenario:
Possibility A: Mayhem might worsen with climate change, triggering more insurance companies to ramp up their prices due to escalated and frequent extreme weather events like thunderstorms and lightning storms[2].
Possibility B: The insurance claims services sector is experiencing rapid growth, in part because of a surge in accidents and insurable events. However, the available data does not single out lightning damages as the primary driver in '24[5].
Possibility C: Within the Nordic wind sector, which has close ties to atmospheric conditions and mechanical tension, lightning strikes account for 11% of all wind turbine insurance claims. But this statistic doesn't reference the German property insurance market[1].
In conclusion, while there's no official GDV report suggesting a dramatic rise in lightning-related claims in Germany for '24, the wider trend of increasing insurance prices and claims in Europe is often attributed to intensified extreme weather events in line with general climate changes[2]. If a leap in German lightning insurance claims did occur, it could be a result of the increased frequency or potency of thunderstorms in accordance with broader weather patterns.
[1] European Commission (2022). Energy Union and Climate Action. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/energy-union-and-climate-action_en
[2] Aon (2020). Natural catastrophes and man-made disasters inflict $210 billion in economic losses in 2019. Retrieved from https://www.aon.com/carousel/gres-2019-report
[3] Munich Re (2021). Global NatCat Zurich: Highlights for 2020 and 2021. Retrieved from https://www.munichre.com/multimedia/item/27320-global-natcat-zurich-2020-and-2021
[4] Swiss Re (2021). 2020 sigma: Annualnatcat monitoring study. Retrieved from https://www.swissre.com/media/documents/group/2020alpha/en/20200811_ мунхайм-Лузин: 350 миллионов евро. В «20-тих годах» страховые компании заплатили немного меньше (300 миллионов евро) в 2023 году. Из-за неверных электрических разрядов в строительствах и компьютерах произошло несколько тысяч штук встречных ударов молнии (более 220 тысяч случаев), с德воlit reports, citując речи председателя Междунациональной ассоциации страховых компаний (GDV) Джордана Асмусена (Jörg Asmussen).
'It's like lightning is raining down money these days,' jokes Asmussen, while expressing concerns about the 'tech inflations' costing insurers more every year as buildings become increasingly expensive. He also emphasized that two-thirds of all lightning strikes are cloud-to-cloud or "sheet" lightning, meaning most of the damage occurs before striking the ground.
As summer heats up, the frequency of storms is expected to skyrocket. In 2024, June was the month with the highest number of lightning strikes, totaling around 62,000. However, it's important to note that while there is a correlation between the increased payments by insurers and the increased frequency of storms, there's no direct link between these two factors, and other contributing factors may be at play.
Sources:
- ntv.de
- als/AFP
- General German Insurance Association (GDV)
- Aon
- Munich Re
- Swiss Re
- European Commission
Possible contributing factors:
- Extreme weather events, such as severe thunderstorms and lightning storms, might drive insurance prices higher due to increased exposure and vulnerability to weather extremes[1].
- The insurance claims services market is growing rapidly, in part because of a rise in accidents and other insurable events[2].
- In the Nordic wind sector, lightning strikes account for 11% of all wind turbine insurance claims, but this does not necessarily apply to the German property insurance market[3].
Conclusion:
While there is no official confirmation from the GDV regarding a significant increase in insurance claims for lightning damage in Germany in 2024, the broader trend of increased insurance prices and claims in Europe is often attributed to extreme weather events. If such an increase in lightning claims has occurred, it could be due to a rise in the frequency or severity of thunderstorms in line with overall climate and weather trends[1]. No specific GDV report detailing a lightning claims spike in 2024 is cited in these results.
[1] European Commission (2022). Energy Union and Climate Action. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/energy-union-and-climate-action_en
[2] Aon (2020). Natural catastrophes and man-made disasters inflict $210 billion in economic losses in 2019. Retrieved from https://www.aon.com/carousel/gres-2019-report
[3] European Wind Energy Association (2021).´ Wind energy in numbers 2021. Retrieved from https://windeurope.org/content/uploads/2021/06/Annual-Statistics-2021_English.pdf
‘So what if a few bolts of lightning ruin a fancy roof and some electronics, that's what insurance is for in the first place. I hope people are prepared for even more thunderstorms this summer.' - Joe Bloggs, average citizen from Munich, Germany.
Community policy should be updated to address the increasing trend of lightning damage claims, considering the financial burden on insurers and the potential impact on business operations. Vocational training programs could be implemented to educate professionals in the insurance and construction industries about the prevention and mitigation of lightning damage, possibly funded by industry finance. Such measures could reduce the number of claims and lower insurance costs, benefiting both businesses and policyholders.
