Hail Hysteria: Why Rising Insurance Costs Are Not Linked to ‘Climate Driven’ Hail Storms
By Marc Morano
June 7, 2024
11:49 am
Climate Depot Special Report
Full 19-page Special-Report-on-Hailstorms
Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2
KEY POINTS 2
RISING INSURANCE COSTS 3
ANALYZING THE “MORE BILLION-DOLLAR DISASTERS” CLAIM 6
WHAT ABOUT TRENDS IN DAMAGING HAIL AND WINDSTORMS? 8
SO, WHY THE HIGHER INSURANCE COSTS? 15
FINAL REMARKS 15
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A slew of damaging hailstorms throughout Texas and portions of the U.S. Great Plains in recent weeks have sparked conversation once again about how human-caused climate change is supposedly “supercharging” our weather, making incidents of severe convective storms both more extreme and more dangerous to human life and property. This is said to be driving insurance companies to exclude protections for property damage incurred by specific types of weather (e.g., damaging wind and/or hail); raise monthly premiums and deductibles on homeowners located in high-risk, disaster-prone regions; or even to refuse to write new home insurance policies, or to cancel policyholders’ existing plans altogether in order to remain profitable, thanks to significant financial setbacks in recent years on properties that they agreed to pay compensation for if damaged.
Unsurprisingly, the storyline that activist journalists in the news media have decided to run with is that anthropogenic climate change is the malefactor in driving up home insurance costs. However, a careful examination of the available meteorological data that government scientists have collected and compiled shows no indication that global warming has resulted in a detectable increase in either the frequency or intensity of extreme events, or, more specifically for this report, the number of damaging hail and windstorms in the U.S. As a matter of fact, the number of damaging hail reports have decreased over the last 14-years, and the number of damaging wind reports has held constant over that same period.
Thus, the increase in storm damage over the last two decades is more appropriately linked to the fact that there is simply more “stuff” to destroy now, as humans continue to place an ever-increasing amount of wealth in Mother Nature’s destructive path. Rising insurance costs are due to a combination of factors, including, but not limited to increased exposure to the elements, rapid inflation, and rising repair costs. To mitigate future economic losses and reduce societal vulnerability, public policy will need to center around becoming resilient to natural hazards by investing in our infrastructure, as well as updating building and zoning codes in high-risk areas. The emergency manager angle of attacking this problem will prove far more effective than taking “climate action” to reach net zero emissions in the U.S. by 2050. The latter would be costly, ineffective and, put simply, a waste of time.
https://www.climatedepot.com/2024/06/07/hail-hysteria-why-rising-insurance-costs-are-not-linked-to-climate-driven-hail-storms/
