Hailstorm in June Was One of Canada’s Costliest Thunderstorm-Related Events: Aon

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Canada saw powerful a series of powerful thunderstorms in June, which brought hail greater than the size of tennis balls and caused extensive damage and flooding throughout the greater Calgary metro region, said Aon in its monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report.

Thousands of homes and vehicles sustained significant damage during the event that swept across southern Alberta, Canada on June 13-14, severely damaging vast areas of agricultural land, said Aon, noting that said these storms had an estimated economic price tag of up to C$1.7 billion (US$1.25 billion). Roughly three-quarters of the economic costs were covered by insurance.

U.S. Severe Weather

Meanwhile, several severe weather outbreaks in the United States in June resulted in an economic loss exceeding US$2.3 billion. The costliest event was a prolonged weather pattern from June 5-11 across much of the eastern two-thirds of the United States, which caused total economic losses estimated at US$800 million, of which more than US$600 million was insured.

“The costs associated with the severe convective storm peril continue to account for a higher portion of insurance payouts on an annual basis,” said Steve Bowen, director and meteorologist on the Impact Forecasting team at Aon.

“While the United States often drives most of these fiscal impacts due to hail, other areas such as Canada, Australia, Germany, and France are frequent to the risk. The June 13 hailstorm in the Calgary metro region, which became one of Canada’s most expensive thunderstorm-related events on record, was not a surprise given Alberta’s long history of impacts from the peril, but the size and intensity of the storm swath over such a concentrated population center only magnified the potential of extensive damage,” he added.

Further natural hazard events to have occurred in June include:

Torrential seasonal Mei-yu rains arrived in China and initiated widespread flooding across the greater Yangtze River Basin during the month of June, killing at least 106 people. The hardest-hit provincial regions included Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan, Hubei and Chongqing, where more than 250,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Total combined economic losses during June alone were listed by the government at CNY35.8 billion (US$5.1 billion).
Tropical Storm Cristobal affected parts of Central America and the southern United States with storm surge, heavy rainfall and convective storms. Total economic losses were estimated at more than US$650 million.
Several severe weather outbreaks impacted parts of Central Europe in June. The most affected countries were Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria and Hungary. Total economic losses were likely to exceed US$150 million. Additionally, widespread flooding in western Ukraine affected more than 22,000 structures.
A powerful extratropical cyclone rapidly intensified and brought periods of gusty winds and heavy rainfall across parts of Brazil on June 30 and July 1, killing at least 10 people. Total economic losses were expected to reach well into millions of U.S. dollars.
A series of four tornadoes touched down across parts of New Zealand’s North Island on June 26-27. Total economic and insured losses were likely to reach into the low-digit millions of U.S. dollars.