tornado

Severe storms rolled into Illinois in the last few hours, with tornado warnings were raised for the Chicago suburbs. At least one tornado touched down and has caused significant damage in the Woodridge suburb of the city.

Once again a large hail storm event looks set to drive at least economic losses towards the billion dollar mark, perhaps insurance and reinsurance market losses too.

Losses from recent bouts of severe convective weather and thunderstorms in the United States are set to drive insurance and perhaps reinsurance market losses into the hundreds of millions at least, according to Aon’s Impact Forecasting.

US severe thunderstorm activity and severe convective weather looks set to escalate as we move into the second-half of March, reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter has warned.

Severe convective storm, thunderstorm and severe weather impacts reached a record high last year, as the peril drove the largest share of annual natural disaster losses that were covered by insurance and reinsurance in the United States during 2020, according to data from Munich Re.

Severe storms, convective weather and large hail across the eastern two-thirds of the United States from August 8th to 12th, including the Derecho that struck the Iowa and Illinois region, is estimated to have cost around $6.5 billion, with more than half of the total likely covered by insurance.

The United States has again been hit by a prolonged period of severe weather this week, with severe storms, convective weather, large hail storm events and a Derecho that struck the Iowa and Illinois region, all adding up to multi-billion dollar economic losses, with most of the wind and hail insured.

The United States and Canada experienced multi-billion dollar insurance and reinsurance losses from severe weather during the month of June 2020, with hail storms in Calgary and convective weather in the U.S. driving the largest share, according to Impact Forecasting.

The insurance and reinsurance market faced another month of severe weather in the United States in May 2020, with the market set for the third consecutive multi-billion dollar insured loss month this year, according to Impact Forecasting.

2020 looks set to be another significant year for severe convective storm losses in the United States, with the insurance and reinsurance market already on the hook for over $13 billion of costs year-to-date, with hail again a significant driver.