Severe storms lead to unprecedented $34 billion in US insured losses so far this year, Swiss Re says

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Waves of severe thunderstorms in the U.S. during the first half of this year led to $34 billion in insured losses, an unprecedented level of financial damage in such a short time, according to Swiss Re Group, as climate change contributes to the frequency and severity of violent meteorological events.

Damages from convective storms in the U.S., those that can come with hail, lightning, heavy rain, and high winds, accounted for nearly 70% of the $50 billion in global catastrophic damages so far this year, the reinsurer said Wednesday. That global figure includes earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

The storms in the U.S. were so severe, that there were 10 that resulted in damages of $1 billion or more, almost double the average recorded over the past decade, according to Swiss Re, and Texas was the state most severely affected.

“The effects of climate change can already be seen in certain perils like heatwaves, droughts, floods, and extreme precipitation,” Swiss Re Group Chief Economist Jérôme Jean Haegeli said in a prepared statement. “Besides the impact of climate change, land use planning in more exposed coastal and riverine areas, and urban sprawl into the wilderness, generate a hard-to-revert combination of high-value exposure in higher risk environments.”

There have been a multitude of high profile meteorological events to start the second half of the year including heatwaves in the U.S., northwestern China and southern Europe, and wildfires on Greek islands, Italy, and in Algeria.

Damages and insurance losses from those events are still being tallied, Swiss Re said.

The increasing frequency of extreme weather has created disruptions within the insurance industry and some have retreated from states that are getting hit hard, such as Florida and California.

The pullback by insurers is happening despite years of skyrocketing premiums for property owners in hard-hit states.

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