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Newark, Calif. – April 6, 2004 – Risk
Management Solutions (RMS), the world’s leading provider of products
and services for the management of catastrophe risk, today announced
that final values for its regional weather indexes show that
temperatures in the winter of 2003 were near the 10-year average in
all regions of the United States.
The RMS indexes track seasonal temperatures
across 10 regions of the U.S. These indexes are calculated using
daily temperature values at stations that are commonly used for
trading of weather derivatives. The indexes for this winter show
that none of the 10 U.S. regions recorded a seasonal average
temperature for the November 2003 to March 2004 period that differed
from the average of the previous 10 winters by more than 3.5%. By
comparison, in the previous two winters there have been eight
instances when the average temperature in a region has differed from
the 10-year average for that region by more than 10%. This includes
the winter of 2001 when average temperature in the Northern Plains
region of the U.S. was 21% warmer than the 10-year average.
"In the past two winter seasons, most regions of
the United States alternated between near-record warm and
near-record cold temperatures," said Steve Jewson, director of RMS'
weather risk business. "This winter we saw a return to 'normal'.
While individual months may have been colder or warmer than normal,
when viewed as a whole, this winter season was not noteworthy in
terms of extreme values. For example, while the Northeast
experienced extremely cold weather in mid to late January, this was
offset by unseasonably warm weather during the second halves of
November and December – yielding a relatively 'average' winter when
viewed as a whole."
The 10 regions of the U.S. that RMS tracks are
the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, Northern Plains,
Plains, South Central, Pacific Northwest, Mountain States, and
Southwest. All final index values and the record of their day-by-day
progression through the winter season can be viewed on
www.climetrix.com, RMS' weather risk web site. RMS will start
tracking values of the regional weather indexes for the May to
September summer season on May 2.
Climetrix® is an Internet-based application that
provides integrated access to all of the data, pricing tools, and
portfolio management capabilities necessary for successful
participation in the weather market. More information on Climetrix
can be accessed at:
http://www.climetrix.com/
About RMS
Risk Management Solutions is the world’s
leading provider of products and services for catastrophe, weather,
and enterprise risk management. More than 400 leading insurers,
reinsurers, trading companies, and other financial institutions rely
on RMS models to quantify, manage, and transfer risk. Founded at
Stanford University in 1988, RMS serves clients today from offices
in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. For more information, visit our
website at
www.rms.com.
Climetrix, RMS,
and the RMS logo are trademarks of Risk Management Solutions, Inc.
All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Editorial Contacts
Jim Marren
TorranceCo.,New York
1-212-521-5210
jmarren@torranceco.com
Sarah Goodall
Risk Management Solutions, London
+44 (0)20 7256 3815
sarah.goodall@rms.com
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