SPECIAL REPORT-Extreme weather batters the insurance industry

The industry hasn't reached a consensus on what's causing weird weather.

"It's hard to really deny that global warming exists," said Karen Clark, chief executive of Boston-based Karen Clark & Co., which helps insurance companies forecast natural disasters. "You can accept that and that's fine, but that doesn't mean we can quantify the impacts."

Others in the business are reluctant to assign blame to broader trends. "Our view would be it's too early to come to a conclusion," said Liam McGee, chief executive of the Hartford Financial Services Group.

Insurance claims are more due to cold weather | TopNews United States

The freezing weather in the month of December resulted in £1.4 billion of insurance claims on property and vehicles in the UK, as shown by figures. This is more than twice the sum of six hundred and fifty million pounds claimed due to the cold snap the previous year, as stated by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

This time the snap was more severe, longer and affected more of the country.