AIR’s Hurricane Model Certified by Fla. Commission for Seventh Consecutive Year

AIR Worldwide Corporation (AIR) announced the certification of its 2003 Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Model by the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology. For the seventh consecutive year the AIR model has been certified for use in residential rate filings in Florida. AIR’s hurricane model is available to primary insurance companies in its CLASIC/2T software.

“AIR successfully met all of the stringent standards set forth by the Commission,” said David Lalonde, senior vice president at AIR. “The Commission has also given full recognition to all of the individual risk characteristics accounted for in the AIR model, including storm shutters, enhanced roof strength and impact resistant glazing for windows. This aspect of the model is increasingly important in light of the Florida Building Code of 2001 and gives insurance companies the ability to rationally price credits for policyholders who take action to mitigate their potential property damage due to hurricanes.”

New features in the 2003 AIR Hurricane model include the incorporation of a higher resolution data set for land use/land cover, which enables more accurate estimation of local wind speeds.

Other refinements include a new approach for estimating radius of maximum winds, increased time resolution of windfield computation, and an updated historical catalog.