2024 has already ranked among the top four costliest years on record for insurance industry losses due to severe convective storms in the US, with insured losses from the peril already exceeding $31 billion, according to Steve Bowen, Chief Science Officer at reinsurance broker Gallagher Re.
In a recent LinkedIn post, Bowen remarked, “It has been a relentless start to the year. This also continues to drive home the point that defining this as a “secondary peril” is off the mark.”
He added, “SCS has been, and continues to be, a primary point of focus and loss driver for many national and regional insurance carriers.”
Bowen ranked 2024 as one of the top four costliest years, alongside 2011, 2020, and 2023.
In 2023, the US was especially hard-hit, with Gallagher Re estimating that insured losses resulting from SCS exceeded $50 billion, far surpassing previous records. While 2024’s insured losses are currently below those of 2023, they are rising rapidly.
According to CoreLogic, by March 2024, SCS events had already broken single day records from 2023, which was a record year for insured SCS losses.
Bowen stated, “The accelerating rate of US SCS losses in the past 10-15 years should comfortably be understood as a new normal.”
He concluded, “Are we willing to invest to be better prepared and limit damage risk? Or simply be content moving the goal posts as “normal” continues to become more expensive?”
