Severe Thunderstorm

Last year the U.S. saw several crop-damaging hailstorms. Two of these—both in Nebraska—were particularly significant.

Canada experienced its first F5 tornado back in June of 2007, when a powerful twister touched down in Elie, Manitoba. I can guarantee that Canada will never see another F5 tornado – ever!

On one of my recent flights, we came across some turbulence and were confined to our seats. That prompted me to get writing.

As we all know, a Sharknado can be a powerful and deadly force of nature as the documentary shown last night on SyFy confirmed. From a life insurance and health insurance point of view, this peril is near the top of the list of worst possible scenarios. But what about from the property insurance angle, which many of our clients are concerned with?

There is an abundance of folklore regarding factors that may (or may not) protect a location from tornado activity. They go around rather than over hills, for example, or they’re disrupted by urban structures, or attracted to mobile home parks.

As Scott Stransky discussed in his recent post, May 20 was the one year anniversary of the massive EF-5 tornado that hit the city of Moore, Oklahoma. In response to that terrible event, the city has approved updates to its residential building codes that require new construction to withstand winds up to 135 mph.

Hail has been hitting the headlines lately as severe thunderstorm systems moved across Europe, pelting France, Belgium, and northern Germany with damaging hail. But chances are, when you think about catastrophes that cause billions of dollars in insured losses, the first perils that come to mind are hurricanes, earthquakes, or floods. But hail? Probably not in Europe.

A year ago, a powerful and destructive EF-5 tornado hit the town of Moore, Oklahoma. Leading the damage survey team that AIR sent out the following weekend, I gained a new appreciation for the destructive force of tornadoes, and severe thunderstorms in general.

With the costly 2011 tornado season now three years behind us, and only a few major severe thunderstorm events since then (the 2013 Moore tornado comes to mind), what is going on? The average number of tornado reports from the beginning of the year through March 17 over the past 9 seasons has been 187. In 2014 so far, we are only at 49, lower than any of the past 9 seasons.