Insured losses from Extratropical Windstorm Goretti will reach €467 million ($776 million), Perils estimates, making it the biggest European windstorm event of the 2025-26 season.

The storm, also named Elli, hit southwest England, northern France and Belgium on January 8-9. It brought record-breaking gusts, high waves, rain, snow and ice.  

Damaging wind affected almost all the north of France, where nearly 75% of losses occurred. Belgium was only marginally affected.  

“Except for Cornwall and the Channel Islands, the UK was largely spared from its impact. Had the storm track been further north, it would have been a much more impactful event with much higher losses,” Perils product manager Luzi Hitz said.

An atmospheric phenomenon known as a “sting jet” led to high winds in a narrow corridor affecting Cornwall, the Channel Islands, and the Manche and Calvados departments in northwest France.

A record gust of 213km/h was measured at the Gatteville Lighthouse on France’s Cotentin Peninsula. 

Perils says Goretti’s impact was “exceptional at a local level but not unusual from a Europewide perspective, where windstorm event losses of this size can be observed annually”. 

A second loss estimate for the storm will be made in April.