Severe Convective Storm Losses for 2025 Already Exceed $20 Billion

Insured losses from the severe convective storms (SCS) between May 14–17 range from $4 billion to $7 billion. According to reinsurance brokers’ recent estimates, these storms may rank among the costliest SCS events in U.S. history.

“Two large severe weather outbreaks on May 14-17 and May 18-20 significantly impacted the central and eastern United States over the past week,” said Aon’s Impact Forecasting team in a report. “Storms on May 14-17 were particularly devastating. [They] resulted in extensive tornado and hail damage and 30 fatalities across the Ohio River Valley and Midwest. Notably, a powerful EF-3 tornado wrecked parts of St. Louis, Missouri, severely damaging thousands of buildings.”

Police have reported dozens of injuries and at least 29 deaths throughout the storms. 27 fatalities occurred on May 16 in a particularly fierce series of tornadoes. Property modeler Cotality (formerly known as CoreLogic) estimates that about 63,000 properties were in the path of the May tornadoes. These had nearly $16 billion in reconstruction cost value. Over 40,000 homes faced exposure to hail damage, the firm added.

Reinsurance broker Gallagher Re predicted that primary insurance losses were between $4-7 billion. These estimates are subject to change, but they encompass damage to residential and commercial properties, autos, and agricultural business operations.

“The overall economic tally will reach even higher. Given the high volume of damage claims coming from wind or hail-related damage, there is an expectation that a large portion of impacts will be covered by standard insurance policies,” said Gallagher Re. “City officials estimated property damage costs associated with a confirmed EF3 tornado in the St. Louis, Missouri metro region alone at $1.6 billion.”

Year-to-date, severe convective storm (SCS) losses for insurers have surpassed $20 billion. This marks the eighth time in the past nine years that losses crossed this threshold by May.

“The U.S. has now recorded at least eight separate billion-dollar insured U.S. SCS loss events in 2025,” said Gallagher Re.

“We’ve long passed the point of justifying any semantic categorization that considers SCS to be a ‘secondary’ peril for the U.S. insurance market,” said Steve Bowen, chief science officer and meteorologist for Gallagher Re, in a LinkedIn post. “This has proven itself to be a perennial major loss driver for many insurance carriers.”

He added, “Combined with the considerable wildfire losses from January, the U.S. heads toward the start of the Atlantic hurricane season with insurance industry losses already beyond $60 billion for the year. Reinsurers, however, remain very well capitalized and in position to absorb sizeable natural catastrophe losses should they arise in the months to come.”