thunder - Insurance company: most expensive lightning damages in the last 20 years
Lighting damage to residential and commercial buildings reached an all-time high in the past year, with German insurers paying out a total of 330 million Euros for 220,000 lightning and overvoltage damage claims to their customers, 80 million more than in 2022. The German Insurance Association (GDV) made this announcement in Berlin. The cause was less the unusually high number of lightning strikes than the increased value of technology installed in homes and buildings.
The average lightning damage amounted to 1,460 Euros, the highest since the GDV statistics began in 1988. "The reason for the high damage average is that buildings and houses are increasingly technically equipped," said Anja Käfer-Rohrbach, deputy CEO of the GDV.
The VdS Damage Prevention Service, a subsidiary of the GDV and the Austrian Electrotechnical Association (OVE), recorded approximately 195,000 lightning strikes in Germany. No comparison figure from the previous year is available, as the service provider has changed.
In the past, Siemens published an annual lightning atlas, but the Munich DAX company has since sold this service to the OVE, which has also taken over the 170 measuring stations. According to the latest Siemens figures published in January, there were more lightning strikes in 2023 than in 2022, but this was not unusually high in the long-term comparison. In the turbulent year 2007, the Siemens measuring stations recorded over a million lightning strikes. According to the GDV, the most lightning occurs in Germany in August.
Despite the decreased number of reported lightning strikes compared to 2022, the German Insurance Association (GDV) noted an increase in insurance claims due to thunder-related damage. This unweathered situation resulted in a significant payout of 330 million Euros in 2023, with Germany's insurance sector recognizing over 220,000 claims. Regrettably, this issue is a growing concern even in cities like Berlin, where GDV made its announcement.
