insurance

Tropical storm Lala in the central Pacific could make the first United States hurricane landfall of 2026 this weekend, as the storm is forecast to intensify and has the Big Island of Hawaii in its sights.

According to reinsurance broker Gallagher Re, year-to-date industry losses from US severe convective storms in 2026 have accelerated and climbed above $35 billion, as the peril’s quieter start to the opening months of the year have since given way to prolific activity.

Catastrophe data aggregator PERILS has published its third industry loss estimate for extratropical windstorm Nils, also known as “Ulrike”, that struck the Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie regions in southwest France in mid-February, placing the insurance market loss at €695 million, a notable decline from its second estimate that was published in May.

Multiple rounds of severe thunderstorm activity that struck the Midwest of the United States earlier this month is seen as having the potential to result in a top-10 severe weather insurance industry loss event, which implies that the cost could be around $5.1 billion or higher to the market, according to broker Guy Carpenter.

CatIQ, the Toronto-based independent catastrophe insurance data provider, has published a final insurance industry loss estimate of CAD $2.80 billion from the severe flooding generated by the remnants of Hurricane Debby that impacted Ontario and Quebec between August 9th and 10th, 2024.

The global data centre insurance market is projected to grow from currently around US $11 billion to more than $24 billion by 2030, which comes as the market continues to drive an influx of infrastructure risks and opportunities, according to Allianz Commercial, the commercial insurance business of Allianz Group.

The Swiss Re Institute has estimated that global insured losses from natural catastrophe events reached US $42 billion in the first half of 2026, marking the lowest first-half total recorded since 2020, and 16% below the 10-year average.

The global reinsurance market is at an inflection point after consecutive strong year’s of underwriting returns have driven robust capital generation, while inflows continue to grow the insurance-linked securities market and alternative forms of capacity, which leads AM Best to call this an inflection point and ask if pricing discipline will last.

Tropical Storm Risk (TSR) has now lowered its forecast for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season at an update today, citing “conditions in the sub-tropical Atlantic looking less favourable than as appeared to be a month ago.”

AM Best and reinsurance broker Gallagher Re have suggested that the areas in and around Spokane, Washington will suffer considerable insured losses from the ongoing wildfires, with Gallagher Re indicating that it has the potential to be a billion-dollar insured loss event, and could become the costliest insured wildfire event in Washington’s history.