Willis Towers Watson (WTW) has expanded its collaboration with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), partnering with NASA’s Disasters Program and the NASA Langley Research Centre. This initiative aims to enhance the understanding of hailstorm risks across Europe, particularly their spatial and temporal distribution.
Building on over a decade of research, this new phase of the partnership will tackle the challenges posed by hailstorms, especially in the context of climate change. Hailstorms remain one of the most costly severe weather risks in Europe, with insured losses increasing in recent years.
The collaboration builds upon the original Willis European hail model introduced in 2014, which was the first stochastic hail model to cover the entire continent. This model has been widely adopted by insurers and reinsurers for hail risk estimation and pricing.
In this latest phase, the model will be updated with enhanced data from NASA’s satellites, which track severe storms and hailstorms. Additionally, a new model setup for hail hazard assessment will be introduced. Researchers will also investigate how climate factors influence hailstorm characteristics, such as hailstone size, frequency, and damage potential.
Daniel Bannister, Head of Weather & Climate Risks Research at WTW, stated, “Our continued collaboration with KIT and NASA ensures we remain at the forefront of scientific research, enabling us to provide reinsurers with the insights they need to respond to this complex peril.”
WTW reported a net income of $1.25 billion (£966.86 million) for the fourth quarter of 2024, up from $623 million in the same quarter of the previous year. However, for the full year of 2024, the company recorded a net loss of $88 million, compared to a net income of $1.1 billion in 2023. This loss includes over $1 billion in impairment charges related to the sale of its unit, TRANZACT.
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