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July 27, 2026 / 2:40 PM EDT
/ CBS News
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Tornadoes, hail and powerful winds linked to climate change now pose a bigger threat to homeowners than floods, hurricanes and other forms of extreme weather, according to new research. In 2025, insurance payouts from "severe convective storms" (SCS) surpassed those resulting from cyclones, making them the costliest insured natural disasters in the world, climate risk modeling firm First Street has found in a new study.Such weather events have "become top of mind for insurance companies, for anybody that owns assets and for residential homeowners," First Street chief economist Jeremy Porter told CBS News. Global insurance payouts triggered by intense convective storms over the last 25 years total $794 billion — more than flooding, earthquakes and drought losses combined, according to the firm, which based its findings on data from risk management consulting firm Aon.U.S. in the eye of the stormIn 2025, severe convective storms accounted for one-third of global natural disaster economic losses, according to First Street. Insured and uninsured losses from SCS totaled $82 billion, more than any other natural disaster; of those losses, $68 billion were concentrated in the U.S. Financial losses caused by damaging wind, hail and tornadoes are particularly prevalent in the U.S. due to the concentration of insured residential, commercial and industrial properties."In the U.S., we have a lot of really valuable real estate," Porter said. "So if you start to [combine] insured assets with the increases in severe convective storms, that's where you see those numbers balloon."
