Insurance – The weathermakers at Baloise draw an initial positive balance from the use of their “hail flyer”. This contributed to less hail damage to cars.
The Baloise hail plane is a Cessna specially equipped for hail prevention. This has been used since August 2018 during the hail season. In the season from May to September, the machine flies to hail storm clouds and inoculates them, as Baloise announced on Thursday.
This vaccination is intended to prevent the formation of larger hailstones. It takes place via a special spray device on the aircraft. Silver iodide is released through this in the center of the updraft. According to Baloise, the quantities are ecologically harmless. The silver iodide acts as a condensation nucleus and prevents large and heavy hailstones from forming.
Apparently Baloise has found a good connection with Petrus. According to the internal damage analysis, the procedure shows an initial positive trend, according to the announcement. To this end, Baloise compared the internal hail damage data from the past twenty years.
Hail damage to cars recently at a low level
One of the industries most affected by hail is motor vehicle insurance. Compared to the years 2000 to 2017, the hail-related damage expense has remained at a consistently low level since the beginning of the cloud vaccinations. This amount is currently in the mid-single-digit million range.
In the 2020 hail season – the plane is now taking its winter break – the hail plane had four missions. In other words, there were four days that were dubbed “loss events” because of more than 50 claims. The average amount of damage on these days was around 10 percent lower than the annual average, which suggests that the hailstorms are less intense, it said.
Baloise is working on a scientific basis with ETH Zurich on cloud vaccination. In addition, a panel of experts was appointed to a “hail council”.
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