
Extreme Weather & Property Insurance Risk: H2 2024 Review
Few regions illustrate the second half of 2024’s extreme weather as starkly as Oklahoma. In the early hours of November 3, a barrage of tornados—some reports put the count as high as 13—swept through the Oklahoma City metro area, injuring residents and devastating homes and businesses. Drone footage shot in the aftermath of one of the tornados, rated an EF3, captured the devastation while only hinting at the financial and emotional trauma left in its wake.
Even for a state that sees an average of 58 tornadoes annually, it was harrowing. But 2024 delivered 152 such storms—nearly three times the historical average. Unfortunately, Oklahoma was hardly alone. Data from Swiss Re shows that global insured losses from natural catastrophes reached at least $135 billion in 2024, with two-thirds of those losses occurring in the United States. In total, the country endured five hurricanes, several atmospheric rivers, scorching heat waves, relentless drought, and more. Yet it was tornados and other severe convective storms (SCS) that contributed to nearly half of the $101 billion in total insured losses from weather-related events worldwide.
Stormfront: Recounting 2024, Glimpsing 2025
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 27 separate billion-dollar disasters unfolded in 2024, making it the fourth costliest year on record. At least 578 lives were lost in the process. It was also the fifth straight year that global insured losses topped $100 billion, underscoring how property insurers are being forced to adapt their underwriting, reinsurance, and claims strategies. If the first half of 2024 felt mild, the second half proved to be challenging, stretching insurers’ ability to respond and recalibrate risk models.
Here’s a snapshot of some of the costliest catastrophes to strain insurer resources during the second half of 2024.
Hurricanes
As USA Today reports, the transition from an El Nino weather pattern combined with an energetic jet stream and warmer-than-usual waters in the Atlantic made for an active hurricane season. Indeed, Beryl broke records by becoming the strongest tropical storm to reach Category 5 before August 1st. But hurricanes Helene and Milton marked the two most costly disasters of the year.
- Hurricane Helene (late September) barreled into Florida’s Big Bend with sustained winds hitting 140 mph. Storm surges of 6 to 15 feet extended into places like St. Petersburg, while torrential rains caused severe flooding across North Carolina and Tennessee.
- Hurricane Milton arrived just days later, spinning off dozens of tornadoes as it moved over Siesta Key. Alongside Helene, it drove as much as $79 billion in total economic damage. Helene alone was responsible for over 150 direct fatalities, contributing to one of the deadliest hurricane seasons in decades.

Together, the combined force of these storms helped make the 2024 season the deadliest in decades. In Milton’s case, things came unnervingly close to going from bad to much worse.
Wildfires
Early 2025 headlines focused on the catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles County, which generated as much as $150 billion in damages after claiming more than 10,000 structures across an area the size of San Francisco. According to Moody’s, costs to insurers could run as high as $20 billion or more. Yet this devastating wildfire was largely set up by conditions during 2024. The National Interagency Fire Center recorded close to 9 million acres burned in the U.S. last year—well above the typical 7 million acres burned annually since 2020. From June 17 through July 16, New Mexico contended with the South Fork and Salt fires, which together destroyed more than 1,400 homes and businesses.
Experts point to a “hydroclimate whiplash” in places like Southern California, where heavy rainfall in 2023 and early 2024 spurred vegetation growth that dried out swiftly under intense summer and fall heat. The result: extreme fuel loads primed to ignite when the next spark, lightning strike, or careless ember arrived. A lack of prescribed burning and other wildfire mitigation efforts have only exacerbated matters.
As of January 14, about 180,000 residents had been evacuated, with 200,000 under evacuation warnings. As Rachel Cleetus, policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists told the Washington Post, “The economic cost and insured losses don’t even begin to capture the human toll that we’re seeing here.”
Severe Convective Storms (SCS)
Even for a tornado-prone nation, 2024 proved alarming. SCS events accounted for nearly half of global insured losses between January and September, based on the Gallagher Re data. Fifteen separate outbreaks each incurred more than $1 billion in insured losses; two of those surpassed $5 billion.
- The historically destructive activity in Oklahoma last November wasn’t an outlier. By year’s end, the nation recorded well over 1,800 tornados—almost double the annual average since 2013.
- Derechos, spawned by persistent heat domes in July, ripped through the Chicago metro, uprooting trees, snapping power lines, and damaging properties across multiple counties.
Although SCS activity tapered slightly in the final months of 2024, the last week of December still saw a multi-state storm system that left 600,000 people without power and caused multiple fatalities. Scientists warn that unseasonably warm late-year temperatures could fuel a continued upward trend in December tornado outbreaks.
Flood
Flood hazards were just as formidable. In mid-June, Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota experienced widespread flooding that triggered rescues and evacuations, hammering local infrastructure and agricultural production. And damage to portions of the Rapidan Dam, 50 miles southwest of Minneapolis put authorities and residents on edge.
Then, in September, Hurricane Helene drove historic storm surges into Tampa Bay, Sarasota, and Big Bend—some reaching 15 feet—while torrential, once-in-1,000-year rainfall totals submerged portions of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, where several mountain towns were destroyed.

The most devastating statistic may be the significant share of businesses and homeowners lacking flood coverage for these events, resulting in considerable uninsured losses. According to Gallagher, SCS events and flooding contributed to 88% of global insured losses for the year.
Hailstorms
Within the broader SCS category, hail remained a formidable sub-peril. NOAA reported 11 individual billion-dollar hail events during the first six months of 2024, and the threat persisted into the fall. In September, the Oklahoma City metro faced hailstones the size of baseballs, causing up to $500 million in total damage. According to reports, researchers at Northern Illinois University anticipate that as the planet warms, stronger updrafts and higher humidity will produce larger, more destructive hail—potentially tipping the scales at three pounds per stone.
In particular, the increased severity of hailstorms is expected to have an outsize impact on the eastern US While large hail events might not always command national headlines, their collective impact can erode carriers’ bottom lines through repeated mid-level losses. As one of the Northern Illinois University researchers told USA Today, $2 million here and $10 million there starts to add up to “death by 1,000 paper cuts.”
Making CAT Risks Less So
Even as risks to property proliferate, not all is doom and gloom. As we mentioned in our H1 review of extreme weather events, solutions powered by artificial intelligence, high-resolution aerial and geospatial imagery, and comprehensive data ecosystems enable insurers to:
- Refine individual property assessments by layering risk data for wildfire, hail, wind, flood, and more
- Elevate underwriting performance with predictive risk modeling tied to next-generation analytics
- Fast-track claims via pre-storm intelligence on probable hail damage, enabling near-instant payouts
According to McKinsey’s 2025 Global Insurance Report, leading insurers increasingly partner with specialized data providers to close coverage gaps, optimize profitability, and expand selectively into markets once deemed too risky. In a world of shifting climate patterns, carriers that tap into real-time insights and allocate capacity with precision can gain a clear competitive edge—and, in doing so, help safeguard more lives and livelihoods when the next CAT event strikes.
In short, if the first half of 2024 foreshadowed rising extremes, the second half hammered the point home. Weather patterns are evolving, and carriers that embrace advanced analytics and granular property intelligence are best positioned to adapt and succeed. By transforming how CAT risk is assessed, priced, and managed, insurers can protect their core business—even as they extend coverage to the communities that need it most.
To learn more about ways underwriters can leverage next-gen property intelligence to succeed in the age of extreme weather events, click here.