Funny Insurance: Weather Insurance
Strange as it may seem, it is true that weather insurance not only exists, but it is one of the oldest types of insurance at all. Farmers’ earning have been connected to the weather since the beginning of agriculture. Weather insurance covers much more than crops nowadays.
The primary target of weather insurance is rain. Fortunately, it is quite easy to buy a rain insurance policy. Concerning rain policies, you can pick rain accumulation policies (for this, you need to determine how much rain would still be acceptable for your event and how much would already ruin it) or dry hours (how many hours in a period of time were without any rain). Analogically you can take counteraction on snow, aiming on the inches per session or per storm. Municipalities and public organs can buy a unique version to cover extra costs – snow removal insurance.
And that is only where the whole business begins. A hot air ballooning show might wish to buy a wind insurance policy against bad wind conditions. If you are planning an ice cream promotion event, you might want to purchase a temperature insurance to secure your investment in case the weather is too bad.
Normally you can choose your own combination of the various policies suitable for your event. Typical customers are film productions (and many insurance companies tailor special policies only for the film industry, for example conditions of underwater visibility or lack of snow). Managers of sports events, concerts, festivals or trade shows are also typical clients of weather insurance. And all the other people, whose business doesn’t directly depend on weather, like me, selling life insurance, can at least insure good weather for leisure time activities and holidays.
This quite new policy is just acquiring customers around the world. In case you go on holiday and the weather is much worse than usually, certain French travel agencies (in cooperation with Aon France) are offering partial money reimbursement. Equally, German airline Lufthansa has made available a new sunshine insurance. Passengers from Germany can buy for €20 ($31.24) simple insurance policy, which will pay them €20 for every ruined day (more than 5mm of rain) during holiday.
Of course, weather insurance is probably not needed when you are going to Tunisia or Greece. And I’m not sure if you are on your way to Vancouver, they will offer you weather insurance. It wouldn’t hurt to ask.
