Tropical Cyclone

Sea levels are rising inexorably, yet people around the world continue to flock to areas at risk of coastal flooding and to build on them. Over time, storm surge has proven to be an important driver of insured losses.

The double whammy hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005 broke all sorts of records and left the insurance industry wondering if a new normal was establishing itself in the Atlantic basin. Has it?

Every year the Atlantic hurricane season keeps forecasters and insurers on their toes bracing for a potential hurricane strike in the Caribbean, Central America, or the United States. But what about Canada?

In the recent AIR Currents article, Katrina 2015, AIR asks what levels of damage could be expected if a storm with the intensity, size, and track of 2005's Hurricane Katrina were to recur today.

Most people are familiar with El Niño. During an El Niño event, trade winds that normally blow from east to west relax or even reverse direction.

Only a couple of decades ago, Vietnam was recovering from years of war and was among the poorest countries in the world.

Successful hurricane forecasting requires a clear understanding of what is going on inside a tropical cyclone system and the various forces driving its development. Detailed and accurate data about wind speeds, air pressure, humidity, sea surface temperatures, and a host of other factors are needed to build this picture.

Boston is basically a hill in a harbor surrounded by low-lying land reclaimed from salt marsh (fens) in the 1800s. In addition to hurricane and earthquake risk, it is increasingly threatened by flood.

My colleague Tim Doggett and I recently traveled to London to participate in a Risk Prediction Initiative 2.0 workshop on Atlantic Hurricane Volatility. Several of the leading academic scientists who study tropical cyclones were there, as well as scientists from other catastrophe risk modeling companies and reinsurers.

It’s been nine years since the last major hurricane made landfall in the United States. With a stat like that, it’s easy to get lulled into a false impression that this is the new normal.