Severe convective storms — the collective term for tornadoes, hail, and straight-line winds — have become the single most expensive insured natural disaster category globally, according to data from multiple major risk firms including Aon, Munich Re, Swiss Re, First Street, Cotality, and the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I).
In the United States, insured losses from severe convective storms (SCS) reached $51 billion in 2025, according to Triple-I citing Gallagher Re. That figure marks the third consecutive year in which U.S. SCS insured losses exceeded $50 billion. Total U.S. economic damages from the peril surpassed $68 billion in 2025, which Triple-I ranks as the third costliest year on record for the category.
Munich Re, using its own methodology, places U.S. severe thunderstorm insured losses in 2025 at $42 billion out of $56 billion in total economic losses — figures it describes as significantly higher than the 10-year average. The variation between sources reflects differences in scope and methodology that are not fully explained in publicly available reporting.
Globally, First Street, drawing on Aon data, calculates that insured SCS losses over the past 25 years total $794 billion — more than insured losses from flooding, earthquakes, and drought combined over the same period. In 2025 alone, SCS accounted for one-third of global natural disaster economic losses, according to First Street. Separately, Insurify, citing Aon data, puts global insured SCS losses for 2025 at $127 billion, a figure characterised as a below-average hazard year.
Swiss Re data cited by Insurify indicates that SCS accounted for 70% of global insured losses in the first half of 2024.
Hail is the dominant loss driver within the SCS category, responsible for up to 80% of claims annually, per Triple-I. Roofs absorb between 70% and 90% of total insured residential catastrophic losses, the same source reports, a concentration that is directly influencing how insurers structure residential policies.
Cotality's 2026 Severe Convective Storm Report estimates that Illinois alone holds $1.5 trillion in SCS-exposed property value, illustrating the scale of the risk in a single Midwestern state.
For much of the past several decades, the insurance industry classified SCS events as secondary perils, with risk models centred on hurricanes and earthquakes. That framing has been revised under accumulating loss data. Triple-I chief executive Sean Kevelighan has stated that SCS is
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