Understory launches weather intelligence storm damage estimate system

Date:06-29-2018

Understory, the weather network and analytics company, recently announced the launch of Weather Intelligence Storm Estimates (WISE), auto-generated assessments after hail events that help insurers better understand post-storm policyholder behavior, claims submission timing and adjuster experience requirements for assessing damage.

"Property and casualty carriers need to know, quantifiably, what happened in the immediate aftermath of any weather event," said Alex Kubicek, CEO and Founder, Understory. "Most times, insurance companies don't know the extent of the damage until policyholders start calling in. Then it can take weeks to months to understand an approximate claim volume. WISE lets you know exactly how an event is going to unfold immediately after the weather clears with a 95 percent accuracy rate."

After a hail event, a WISE assessment is automatically delivered to clients to provide an estimate of claims volume and total indemnity. Driven by damage analytics combined with historical claiming information, WISE's machine learning model predicts human behavior relative to claim submissions in areas both where damage occurs and where it does not. Planning metrics include:

*Policyholder behavior-Claiming volume for areas of likely property damage, damage-related insight based on property characteristics and the ability to recognize potential fraud,

*Adjuster experience-Adjuster workforce requirements relative to adjuster experience in storm aftermath,

*Submission timing-Claims volume expected through First Notice of Loss each week following an event.

During a 2017 Denver hail storm that caused more than $1.4 billion in damages, Understory provided reliable, ground-truth weather data previously unavailable to insurers and secured loss control of 15 to 30 percent. With on-the-ground weather stations, hyper-local weather can be understood with resolution and accuracy to streamline operational challenges and economic consequences.

With 500 stations deployed across five major metropolitan areas, Understory has worked with the insurance industry to analyze over 1,500,000 policyholders and 100,000 claims. Property and casualty insurance carriers have already seen pathways to over $62 million in savings.

With its national expansion, Understory plans to increase its sensor network to 5,000 sensors by the end of 2019. Understory networks will cover regions responsible for over 50 percent of the average annual storm loss and over 90 percent of all weather-related catastrophes.

About Understory

Understory analyzes and processes the data it collects to create real-time datasets, views, and actionable information from historical, current, and forecasted weather events to provide better insight and early detection of risks. Understory's composite of granular weather data has applications across a variety of markets, including broadcasting, agriculture, forecasting, and risk mitigation. For more information, visit www.understoryweather.com.