US weather technology company Canopy Weather has teamed up with risk management firm Global Risk Solutions (GRS) to streamline weather-related property damage claims.
Canopy Weather will provide real-time property-specific wind and hail damage analytics. The data will be used by GRS to assess and speed up insurance claims.
According to NOAA figures, there were more than 4,600 hailstorms in the USA in 2018, resulting in US$810m-worth of damage to property and crops.
Matt Van Every, CEO of Canopy Weather, said, “There is more to damage than just hail size. Maximum hail size is not the whole story. One or two isolated 3in hailstones aren’t going to total a roof, but thousands of 1in stones can. With our new science, Canopy Weather is able to address the hail volume question.”
Meanwhile, Falin McMellon, GRS’s senior vice-president, said the hailstorm technology would allow his company “to more efficiently dispatch claims to the proper resource the first time” resulting in “better overall customer experience for our clients”.