PERILS, the Zurich-based catastrophe insurance data provider, has provided its first insurance industry loss estimate for the Australia East Coast Severe Convective Storms (SCS), which occurred in late October, of AUD 1.108 billion (USD 736m).
Based on data collected from the majority of affected insurers, PERILS’ initial estimate of the insurance market loss from the storms covers the property and motor hull lines of business.
“This is the first major severe convective storm activity to impact South East Queensland since the December 2023 Christmas Storms and the Halloween Storms of October 2020. In addition, another major SCS outbreak in the Brisbane area occurred in late November, which PERILS is currently investigating. Putting this recent activity into context with historical records reveals an increase in the frequency of major SCS events in South East Queensland, an observation which is consistent with the global trend in SCS losses,” said Darryl Pidcock, Head of Asia Pacific & Cyber at PERILS.
As noted by PERILS, the biggest impact from the event period occurred on October 26th and impacted the greater Brisbane area in South East Queensland. On the same day, a tornado affected the western suburbs of Melbourne in Victoria, which was followed by a period of more benign storm activity along the east coast. On October 31st and November 1st, another round of severe thunderstorms hit South East Queensland, and to a lesser degree the state of New South Wales.
“In Australia, storm event definition clauses for reinsurance purposes vary and can include meteorological conditions and/or loss aggregation periods with the majority being 168 hours. PERILS generally follows the predominant clause and therefore the losses from the storms are aggregated into one single insurance event for the period of 26 October to 1 November 2025,” said Pidcock on the event period.
PERILS will provide an updated estimate of the insurance market loss from the Australia East Coast Severe Convective Storms on February 1st, 2026, three months after the event end date.
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