We offer a wide range of products and services to insurance and reinsurance companies, providing a fresh perspective on the weather and climate factors affecting their business.

Our products and services include:

US Hurricane Landfall rates

United States (U.S.) hurricane landfall events are among the most damaging and costly natural hazards to the insurance industry. Our new independent report giving hurricane landfalling statistics for the insurance markets.

The report gives:

• A transparent, authoritative and alternative view of hurricane landfalling rate calculations based. 
• Scientific analysis of historical hurricane dataset (HURDAT).
• Comparison of three methods for detecting hurricane landfall.
• Support for catastrophe model analysis.
• Business defining data for pricing and capital allocation decisions.

The Met Office is the UK's national weather and climate centre, forecasting globally and analysing hazards on timescales from the observable past to years into the future.

An overview of the report is available to download Estimating historical hurricane landfall rates in the United States (PDF, 353 kB)

Risk reports

• Monthly global risk forecasts - presenting an expert summary of global weather anomalies that could lead to loss-making hazards over the next one to six months. In 2010, these reports forecast months in advance the heavy rainfall over Queensland that led to flooding.  
• Five-year forecasts of North Atlantic tropical storm activity - annual forecasts of the next five years' North Atlantic tropical storm activity. Building on the science that won the Lloyds science of risk prize, the Met Office now provides numerical forecasts of tropical storm activity on timescales relevant to insurance pricing.    
• Monthly North Atlantic tropical storm analysis - from March to September, these analyses give an expert summarising view of the Atlantic tropical storm season. They include data from the most advanced forecasting systems and observations available.
• Advisor papers - summarising key emerging topics in hazard and risk based science, enabling you to communicate with your stakeholders on these key issues.

Consultancy

We have a number of expert scientific consultants ready to work with you to find solutions to your business challenges. Recent projects have included:

Extreme weather planning

Commissioned by the Light Hill Risk Network, we wrote a report to define and describe the cycle of El Niño and La Niña episodes and their worldwide impacts most relevant to the finance industry, highlighting in particular severe rainfall and tropical storm aspects.

This assists the financial industry to make more informed decisions through an understanding of the El Niño and La Niña climate cycles. These cycles shift the risks of damaging hazards in recognisable ways and they predicted about six months in advance.

Read the Global Impact of El Niño and La Niña Implications for Financial Services report.

Post event analysis

In response to the needs of insurance and reinsurance markets worldwide, JBA Consulting,  eCityRisk and the Met Office are combining forces to provide clients with a series of post-event assessment and reporting capabilities.

Following an event, we provide detailed event reporting for clients who wish to access a reliable source of "what happened" information, either for their own purposes or for onward dissemination to a wider client base. Our bespoke service, can be branded purely for our client if desired, and can be commissioned before, during or after an event has occurred.

Find out more about Independent and objective post-event assessment and reporting of natural catastrophes (PDF, 437 kB)

Assessing the financial risks of climate change

To assess the financial impacts of climate change, we worked with The Association of British Insurers (ABI) and catastrophe modelling experts AIR Worldwide, to conduct a study. The focus was on the dominant natural hazards in the UK, wind and inland flooding damage, and typhoon damage in China.

We created a series of climate scenarios based on the current state-of-the-art climate model output, as well as a diverse range of published scientific research and data. The scenarios were then used by AIR Worldwide to adjust their catastrophe models - providing a unique insight into relationships between climate change and potential financial risk impacts.

Data

The Met Office holds authoritative records of weather data for a range of parameters, locations and timescales. We can provide a vast amount of data to support your business decisions.

For more information on our comprehensive data services contact consulting@metoffice.gov.uk