Weather insurance - doesn't it sound unconventional? Well, in any case it represents one of the oldest types of insurance. Farmers’ earning have been tied to the weather since the beginning of agriculture. In our modern times, much more than crops can be covered by weather insurance.

The usual target of weather insurance is rain. The positive news is that rain insurance is quite common and quite easy to find. Regarding rain policies, you can select rain accumulation policies (for this, you need to determine how much rain would still be acceptable for your event and how much would already ruin it) or dry hours (how many hours in a period of time were without any rain). Similarly you can take counteraction on snow, aiming on the inches per session or per storm. Municipalities and public organs can go for a particular version to cover extra costs – snow removal insurance.

And that is only where the whole business starts. A hot air ballooning show might want to pay for a wind insurance policy against bad wind conditions. If you are planning an ice cream promotion event, you might want to choose a temperature insurance to secure your investment in case the weather is too bad.

Most insurance companies allow you to combine these insurances for any event. Film production companies are a typical customer for this mix, and many special insurance policies are tailored just for the film industry - for example insurance of underwater visibility or against lack of snow. Managers of sports events, concerts, festivals or trade shows are also typical clients of weather insurance. For us, whose business is not directly influenced by the weather, like me, selling life insurance, we can still purchase weather insurance for our free time and our holidays.

This quite new policy is just trying to attract clients around the world. You can get part of your money back if it rains more than expected during your holidays - this is for sale by certain French travel agencies, in cooperation with Aon France. A brand new sunshine insurance is now offered for clients of Lufthansa, the German airlines. Passengers from Germany can buy for €20 ($31.24) simple insurance policy, which will pay them €20 for every wasted day (more than 5mm of rain) during holiday.

Of course, weather insurance is probably not necessary when you are travelling to Tunisia or Greece. However, when travelling to Vancouver, weather insurance may not be available. But just asking is for free.