Europe had a comparatively benign catastrophe year in 2025. Severe convective storms (SCS), European winter storms and floods combined caused over 3 billion in insured losses from natural catastrophes. The relatively low loss number was a matter of where events occurred, rather than an absence of events. Severe convective storms represent the region’s largest weather-related loss growth driver, with trends increasingly influenced by hazard and vulnerability changes beyond exposure alone. Flood is one of Europe’s most important natural catastrophe perils, even though losses in 2025 were unusually low. Flood loss growth has been more contained, particularly in western and central Europe where adaptation measures have helped limit rising insured losses driven by economic growth and increased insurance penetration. Winter storm risk remains ever present despite a recent period of below-average activity. The focus for Europe remains on improving risk understanding, strengthening resilience and ensuring insurance and adaptation work together.

Insured losses from natural catastrophes in Europe totaled USD 4.0 billion in 2025, well below the previous 10-year average of USD 11.7 billion and the lowest annual total since 2006. Severe convective storms (SCS), European winter storms and floods were the main drivers, causing insured losses of USD 1.47 billion, USD 1.40 billion and USD 0.23 billion, respectively. 2025 was among Europe’s lightest catastrophe loss years of the past three decades.

Europe insured losses from natural catastrophes by peril, in 2025 and for previous past year averages, %

Intense weather events occurred in several parts of the region, including hailstorms in France and wildfires in Spain, Italy and Greece, and the potential for more substantial losses remained ever present. The year's most severe events mainly affected areas with lower exposure density, while major concentrations of insured assets were largely spared, which explains the low loss outcome. Annual loss outcomes are inherently volatile, but low losses in a given year do not mean that underlying risk has diminished. Hazard dynamics, natural weather variability and uneven exposure distribution mean that losses may remain at or be below average in any one year, while occasional large events drive loss extremes in others.

SCS account for more than half of weather-related insured loss growth in Europe, making them the region’s main loss growth driver. Flood is the second-largest contributor (around 20%). The contribution from wildfire, by contrast, remains minimal (for now). Trend estimates signal a rising trend, but actual observed insured losses are still relatively low.

Europe’s SCS insured losses are increasing by 9–11% a year in real terms, compared with 3–8% for flood and 8–11% for wildfire. This places SCS among the fastest-growing loss drivers in Europe. SCS-associated losses in Europe can be substantial as seen in Italy in 2023, France in 2022 and Germany in 2021. Growth rates in Europe also appear higher than in North America (around 7%), even though SCS risk is highest globally in the latter. However, long-term loss trends for Europe are subject to uncertainty as they are aggregated across many countries with different monitoring and reporting standards. Further, hidden or hard-to-measure risk drivers, combined with the low frequency of extreme events, mean longer-term loss trends may be underestimated.

Winter storms, despite their historical significance, have contributed little to insured loss growth since large-scale destructive events in 1990 and 1999. Still, winter storms remain the peak peril for northwestern Europe. Winds in winter storms are less severe than in tropical cyclones, but large parts of the region can be impacted by a single storm, and damage in different locations can accumulate to multi-billion levels, even without a major storm. History shows that European winter storm hazard activity is variable on a decadal time scale. In recent years, storm activity has been below average. Given the natural variability, phases of higher storm activity will likely occur, yielding bigger losses. Though storm activity has been below average in recent years, storm Ciaran in 2023 and Storm Éowyn in 2025 were reminders that the risk remains. Éowyn caused just USD 0.9 billion of insured losses, but it was the UK’s most powerful windstorm in the past decade, the strongest storm in Ireland since the Boxing Day storm of 1998, and Ireland’s costliest insured winter storm on record.

In Europe, less than half of the observed increase in SCS insured losses can be explained by exposure growth.¹ A substantial residual remains, pointing to drivers beyond exposure. Changes in hazard characteristics, including shifts in storm intensity and hail severity, may play an increasingly prominent role. Supporting this view, an increasing number of studies find a rise in severe hail frequency for parts of Europe.² A global analysis³ of very large hail events (>5 cm) finds that Europe, especially northern Italy, is experiencing the sharpest increase in the frequency of such events, driven by rising low-level moisture and increasing atmospheric instability.

Insured loss growth from SCS in Europe since 1970, decomposed into key exposure drivers, insurance effects and residuals

Changes in vulnerability likely also contribute to the large remaining residual. For example, in Europe total solar capacity has increased by a factor of five between 2015 and 2025. Solar power installations on roofs can be particularly vulnerable to hail damage, adding a new layer of exposure potential to SCS. This rapid expansion is expected to slow, with recent trends suggesting that solar energy infrastructure has reached a near-term peak in Europe.

Adaptation is inherently more challenging for SCS, as timing and location of events are difficult to predict, damage is highly localized, yet exposure extends across large areas. As a result, it is difficult to know where to prioritise mitigation efforts. Resilience can be strengthened by improving and enforcing building codes and construction standards, particularly against hail, and better exposure data to improve risk assessment.

Flood is one of Europe’s most important natural catastrophe perils because it combines high loss potential with wide geographic reach and repeated impacts on densely populated river basins and urban areas. In Europe, flood-insured losses have grown moderately since 1970, and after accounting for the increasing insurance take-up in many countries, no residual loss growth is observed. Insured flood losses grow slightly more slowly in western/central Europe (about 5% per year) than in southern Europe (about 6% per year). In western/central Europe, our analysis suggests that flood protection and adaptation measures, such as dikes, levees and land-use planning, have been effective in constraining insured loss growth, particularly for countries such as the UK, France, Switzerland, and Austria.

Decomposition of insured loss growth from floods in Europe since 1970 into key exposure drivers, insurance effects and residuals

These results are consistent with research showing that adaptation has reduced economic losses resulting from floodings in Europe by around 63% since 1950,⁴ largely offsetting increased flood risk from hazard shifts and floodplain expansion, with stronger effects in western/central than in southern Europe. Fathom, a Swiss Re-owned company specialising in water risk, estimates that the UK’s annual household flood losses would be about 2.8 times higher without current flood protection. Southern Europe, however, still shows upward pressure on losses. The 2024 flood event in Spain, the costliest insured loss event ever for the country, illustrated how intensified rainfall⁵ combined with rapid urban expansion and increasing soil sealing in flood-prone areas can amplify runoff and result in substantial losses.