2005 worst and costliest year for severe weather

NEW YORK - Severe weather around the world has made 2005 the most costly year on record, with unprecedented levels of insurance claims on damaged property, according to the UN Environment Programme.

Preliminary estimates made by insurance company Munich Re Foundation put the year's financial losses at more than US$200 billion ($282 billion), with insurance claims running at more than US$70 billion.

This compares with 2004, the previous most costly year as a result of weather-related disasters, when economic losses totalled around US$145 billion and insurance claims reached about US$45 billion.

The programme said this year's figures were partly due to the highest number of hurricanes and tropical storms since records began.

Thomas Lobster, a member of the finance initiative of the UN Environment Programme, said 2005's weather was exceptional in many ways.

"There is a powerful indication that we are moving from predictions of the likely impacts of climate change to proof that it is already under way.

"Above all these are humanitarian tragedies. They show us that, as a result of our impacts on the climate, we are making people and communities everywhere more vulnerable to weather-related natural disasters."

The year was marked by the highest ever rainfall - 944mm in 24 hours - recorded in Mumbai, India. It also saw the first-ever hurricane to hit Europe and the appearance of the strongest hurricane on record.

Hurricane Vince was the first to strike landfall in Europe when it hit the Spanish coast in October. In November, tropical storm Delta hit the Canary Islands, killing several people - the first such storm on the islands.

The Atlantic hurricane season this year broke many records. Hurricane Wilma in October was the strongest storm ever recorded, and there were so many tropical storms that the US Hurricane Centre exhausted its list of 21 alphabetically ordered names.

Although not all scientists are convinced that climate change is responsible, many computer models predict severe weather could occur more in a warmer world.

- INDEPENDENT