Document summary
Major atmospheric-driven catastrophes, such as hurricanes and floods, may appear to be independent events when looked at historically. Yet it is well established in climate science that regional weather and climate conditions in one part of the world can have impacts on other parts. In weather and climate science, links between extreme weather events occurring in separate regions of the world, taking place over timescales from days to years, are known as teleconnections. Currently, insurers model of risk do not take account of teleconnections. To establish whether the assumption of independence in insurers’ internal models is appropriate, and to increase insurers’ and regulators’ understanding of the implications of teleconnections for risk modelling, Lloyd’s commissioned the Met Office to investigate the extent of the links between different global extreme weather perils and the mechanisms for these dependencies.