The United States is Earth’s punching bag for nasty weather. Blame geography for the U.S. getting hit by stronger, costlier, more varied and frequent extreme weather than anywhere on the planet, several experts said.

Global insured losses from natural catastrophes reached US$125 billion in 2022, the second consecutive year in which insured losses from NatCats exceeded US$100 billion, according to the latest sigma study from Swiss Re Institute. And it looks like this trend is here to stay.

Given the vast number of proposals to close ‘the protection gap’ offered by regulators, reinsurers, insurers, brokers and other industry participants in recent years, it is a wonder that it persists.

In the shadow of Lee McCall’s crumbled home sits an old RV and two tents that are now housing her family. The house, located in St. James City, is still rotting after Hurricane Ian pounded Southwest Florida in September, flooding thousands of homes, including theirs.

Wild and wacky weather events like atmospheric rivers, derechos and bomb cyclones may seem new because of recent media coverage, but they’ve been known and named phenomena for quite some time in the history of meteorology and atmospheric science, speakers said Tuesday at the CatIQ Connect conference.

Disaster insurance is more complicated than other types of property/casualty coverage, and traditional forms of risk transfer may not be sufficient on their own to effectively help policyholders bounce back from catastrophes in the long term, Triple-I non-resident scholar Carolyn Kousky said in an interview on the World Economic Forum Book Club Podcast.

Disaster insurance is more complicated than other types of property/casualty coverage, and traditional forms of risk transfer may not be sufficient on their own to effectively help policyholders bounce back from catastrophes in the long term, Triple-I non-resident scholar Carolyn Kousky said in an interview on the World Economic Forum Book Club Podcast.

A new year is here, and while only time will tell what the future holds, the past has taught our industry that there will always be an element of risk and uncertainty in this world. More importantly, the unimaginable occurs when you least expect it.

‘Insurance exists to protect that which we cannot afford to lose, and when it comes to climate change, we all have a lot to protect,’ suggests Greg Case, CEO of Aon.

A tornado that tore through the Houston area on Tuesday was the kind of early-season storm that scientists say has been occurring with increasing regularity -- a sign that patterns of severe weather are shifting.

Over 100 January tornadoes have been confirmed so far in the United States this month, a tally that has been exceeded only twice in 74 years of records. Through Jan. 23, at least 102 tornadoes have been confirmed in the month, Storm Prediction Center meteorologist Evan Bentley tweeted Tuesday.

Moody’s RMS, the catastrophe risk modelling specialist, has estimated that the recent severe flooding in California, that was triggered by a spate of storms and atmospheric river events, could amount to as much as $1.5 billion in losses for the insurance industry.

As of yesterday, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) had paid USD 2.2 billion in claims for Hurricane Ian, which made landfall in Florida as a major Category 4 storm in September 2022, an increase of almost 28% from the figure reported by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on January 9th, 2023.

Hurricane Ian, which thrashed Florida and the Carolinas last year, has claimed the No. 3 spot in the list of 10 most expensive hurricanes in U.S. history, according to a new report from the National Centers for Environmental Information.

The insurance industry is struggling to adapt to a new normal in which losses fueled by climate change are now regularly exceeding $100 billion a year.