Switzerland's Swiss Insurance Association (SVV) estimated that severe hail and storm damage across the country's midland region reached nearly one billion CHF in insured losses following a powerful thunderstorm cell that struck on the morning of August 28, 2026.
More than 80% of the insured damage came from motor vehicles ruined by hail, with over 100,000 cars affected, the SVV said Thursday. Roughly another 10% was attributed to elemental damage covered through the Swiss Elemental Damage Pool, an arrangement including the country's major private insurers. Remaining claims fell across business-interruption and other supplementary insurance lines.
The bill does not cover building damage, which in most cantons is handled separately by mandatory cantonal building-insurance monopolies rather than private insurers. Only seven cantons place residential property coverage in the private market. The storm-hit areas were predominantly those operating under cantonal monopolies, and their respective building-insurance bodies are assessing those losses independently, the SVV said.
The system that moved from the Jura arc across the midland into eastern Switzerland produced hailstones up to five centimeters in diameter and heavy storm gusts. Several people were injured by fallen trees and flying debris, including one woman in the canton of Solothurn who was seriously hurt.
The total estimated loss of close to one billion CHF is roughly double the damage inflicted by the last major Swiss hail event, which hit the canton of Ticino in August 2023.
