Up to 31 July more than 25,000 claims were lodged with Austrian hail insurers for claims caused by hail, frost, flooding and drought. Compared to last year the number of claims has more than doubled, according to the German website Gabot.de.
"Never before in the 65-year long company history did we receive so many claims at this time of the year. In total up to now more than 300,000 HA agricultural land has been hit by extreme weather. That is a quarter of the total agricultural area in Austria. The total claims up to now amount to 120 million Euro," according to Dr. Kurt Weinberger, director-general of Austrian Hail Insurance.
Not a single Austrian federal state remained free of hail this year. Just about every federal state was hit more than once even. The heaviest hailstorm was in the federal state of Steiermark on 9 July. Hailstones of which some were as big as tennis balls caused severe damage in only a few minutes and damage to the value of more than 5 million Euro was the result.