Generali: the storms of early July devastated the country

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 07. 09. 09:07

Global warming is already affecting our daily lives: in recent years we have been faced with extreme weather events and the damage they cause more and more often. At the beginning of June last year, hailstorms shook the country, and in the first days of July this year, after the heat wave, the weather suddenly turned stormy. Between July 7 and 9, Generali Insurance received nearly 8,500 elementary damage reports related to apartments and condominiums, which is an exceptionally high number.

The majority of the reports were related to the sudden storm, followed by lightning and damage reports caused by ice. Although damage reports are still coming in, and the weather has not changed for the better, according to preliminary estimates, the amount of damage payments could reach 2.3 billion HUF.

The most damage reports were in Pest, Hajdú-Bihar; and Csongrád County, according to the data, Szeged, Vecsés, Hódmezővásárhely, Hajdúszoboszló and Oroszháza suffered the most from the storms in early July.

According to data from Időkép, the stormy wind gusts are still not abating: on Tuesday, a thunderstorm chain formed in the southern half of Transdanubia, and a supercell formed in the southern part of it reached Békés County.

Hurricane-force wind gusts of 116 km/h were measured in Fonyód Castle Hill on Wednesday morning.

Half of the population already considers climate change to be one of the biggest future threats

While a few decades ago it was possible to know exactly what conditions we could expect in a given season, this has changed today. Floods, torrential rain, hail, frost, large amounts of snow, different from previous years: these are just a few of the extreme weather phenomena that, due to their increased incidence, are already having an impact on our everyday lives. Predictability in relation to the weather has ceased to exist: storms strike out of nowhere and in many cases can cause very serious destruction.

As a result of these circumstances, a large part of society is increasingly afraid of possible natural damage, as a result of which they consider the protection and insurance of assets to be much more important than before. A representative autumn 2023 study by Generali Insurance revealed that 49% of the Hungarian population aged 18-65 consider climate change and extreme weather conditions to be the greatest future threat, after economic change and inflation.