The first quarter is typically the quietest of the year, though 2022 marked the sixth consecutive year to record more than $10 billion in insured losses
The preliminary Q1 overall economic loss was $31 billion. Public and private insurers covered $14 billion of this total.
The first three months of 2022 were highly active in many territories around the world.
Significant natural hazard events occurred in Western and Central Europe (Windstorms Dudley/Ylenia,Eunice/Zeynep, and Franklin/Antonia), Australia (East Coast Floods), Japan (March 16 Earthquake), and the United States (Severe Convective Storms).
The first quarter is typically the quietest of the year, though 2022 marked the sixth consecutive year to record more than $10 billion in insured losses.
The preliminary Q1 overall economic loss was $31 billion. Public and private insurers covered $14 billion of this total.
However, it is important to remind that these totals are expected to be upwardly revised, perhaps considerably, in the coming weeks and months.
This type of loss development is standard and expected in the aftermath of larger scale events.
For public and private insurers, the $36 billion in Q1 weather-related insured losses in 2021 and 2022 represented the second-highest two-year total on record. This is second only to 2020 and 2021, which tallied $40 billion and was primarily driven by the $25 billion in 2021.
Third place is $33 billion for Q1 events in 1990 (highlighted by major European Windstorm events) and 1991.
For all natural hazard events, including earthquakes / tsunamis / volcanoes / etc, the two-year total of $41 billion ranks as the seventh-highest total on record.
The record remains 2010 and 2011 at $98 billion.
Natural Hazard Overview
Global temperatures and precipitation were heavily influenced by the continued effects of La Niña across the central and eastern Pacific Ocean.
These influences resulted in notable hazard events including prolific and record-setting rainfall along Australia’s East Coast, continued severe drought conditions in parts of Africa, South America, and the western United States, and an earlier start to severe weather season in the United States.
Per NOAA: January was the sixth-warmest, February was the seventh warmest, and March was anticipated to finish in the top 10 for the globe dating to 1880. March also marked the 447th consecutive month for global land and ocean temperatures to be above the 20th century baseline average.
The official NOAA March ranking will be released on April 14, 2022. .
Economic and Insured Loss Analysis
Years with elevated Q1 economic losses have often been amplified by major earthquake events, such as 1994 (United States), 2010 (Chile and Haiti), 2011 (Japan and New Zealand), 2020 (Croatia), and 2021 (Japan).
In recent years, however, the growing impactful nature of “secondary perils” such as winter weather, flooding, and severe convective storm have accounted for a significant portion of the overall quarterly economic cost.
This reinforces the question as to whether the term “secondary peril” has
become obsolete because the losses associated with these perils are impacting more populated communities with increasing intensity and resulting in higher loss costs.
The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region accounted for the highest percentage of Q1 economic losses ($15+billion), with Europe ($7 billion) and the United States ($6 billion) behind.
With many large scale and impactful events occurring in the month of March, it is expected that event loss totals will continue to develop in the weeks and months ahead.
One of the most significant individual events of the first quarter of 2022 occurred on March 16 just offshore Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture.
A USGS-registered magnitude-7.3 earthquake – along with several strong aftershocks and a notable foreshock – shook many prefectures throughout Japan.
The event occurred just days after the 11th anniversary of the Great Tohoku Earthquake on March 11, 2011.
According to Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency (FDMA), the March 16 earthquake resulted in four fatalities and left 244 others injured. An immediate power blackout ensued after the main shock, affecting more than 2.2 million households across 14 prefectures, including Tokyo.
The tremor also ruptured water pipes and caused temporary water shortages to more than 34,000 households.Infrastructure was notably disrupted which led to five Shinkansen lines being suspended. JR East confirmed 1,000 cases of infrastructure damage, including 300 railway and 79 utility poles damages.
The temblor also brought down a few units of cooling water pumps in Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini nuclear power stations, but no radioactive leakage occurred. There were twelve fire incidents,mainly in Miyagi Prefecture.