Two severe windstorms roared through central Europe last December, bringing wind gusts exceeding 120 miles per hour to France, Germany and Austria.

Striking only two days apart, these storms killed more than 90 people, knocked out electricity in two million French households and caused insured losses of near US $7 billion.

Today, the Bermuda Biological Station for Research's Risk Prediction Initiative (RPI) hosts an international workshop to explore how insurers can best utilise science to respond to the hazards posed by such windstorms and their associated flooding.

During the workshop, insurance industry sponsors of the RPI will work with some of Europe's leading climate scientists to examine the long-term weather records that are used to assess the probabilities of severe European storms.

They will also investigate the use and development of computerised flood models, examine potential links between climate cycles and wind and flood events, and explore how these links might change in the future due to global warming or natural variability of climate.

Members of the CRESTA insurance meeting currently taking place on the Island will also attend.

Founded in 1994 at BBSR, the RPI is a science-business partnership that helps businesses better understand, assess and manage all types of climate-related risks.

RPI's continuing goal is to make the science of climate prediction understandable and relevant to the global insurance industry.

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