Wind

The Wind policy reads one number: the highest 10-minute mean wind speed at 10 metres above ground in the cell that contains your insured location. A cell is 10 by 10 kilometres. Gusts are recorded but do not pay, because a gust is a short event and your losses come from sustained load on roofs, cladding and power lines.

The strike is where the policy starts to pay. For a coastal site on the Gulf Coast, a typical strike is 150 km/h, which pays 25 % of the limit. At 168 km/h the policy pays 50 %, and at 189 km/h it pays the full limit. Between two steps nothing is interpolated: you know on the day you buy the policy exactly what each reading is worth. During Storm Ines, cell FL-0417 peaked at 171 km/h, crossed Tier 2, and paid at T+41 h.

The reading is never taken from one instrument. The calculation agent builds the cell value from ground stations, a radar-derived wind field and a satellite estimate, and it signs the result only if at least two of the three land within ±3 % of each other. If they do not, the policy falls back to the station nearest your site and says so in the settlement note.

Prevention is part of the cover. When the forecast cone for a named storm reaches your cell, you receive an alert 36 hours before the expected peak, with the cell’s forecast reading against your strike, and a short list of what operators usually do at that stage: lower the sails of an outdoor structure, move stock off the ground floor, test the generator. Nobody has to act, and the premium does not change if you do not.