Global reinsurer Munich Re projects insured losses from US hurricanes will continue to rise as warming ocean temperatures increase the likelihood of intense storms and extreme rainfall.
The projection comes despite the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season recording no US hurricane landfalls for the first time in a decade, as reported by Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I). The season produced five storms that reached hurricane strength, four of which intensified into major hurricanes, including three Category 5 storms. The Atlantic basin recorded more than two Category 5 hurricanes for only the second year on record.
Munich Re described the season as “masking sharp regional shocks and a very narrow escape for some of the most insured coastlines.”
Tropical Storm Chantal made landfall in South Carolina, resulting in $500 million in economic losses, according to Gallagher Re’s Natural Catastrophe and Climate Report: Q3 2025. The storm dumped up to 10 inches of rain across multiple North Carolina counties, where fewer than 1% of households carried flood insurance.
In Arizona, the neighboring towns of Globe and Miami were largely uninsured when torrential rain from eastern North Pacific Category 2 Hurricane Priscilla struck the region weeks after deadly flash flooding had already hit the area.
“The 2025 hurricane season is a powerful reminder that the absence of US hurricane landfalls does not equate to reduced risk,” Triple-I CEO Sean Kevelighan said. “Flooding from weaker or fast-moving storms continues to drive loss of life and economic damage, particularly in inland communities that remain underinsured.”
Demographic and development trends continue to amplify risk. Flood-prone coastal counties in Florida, Texas, New York, and Louisiana posted net population declines in 2024 for the first time since 2019. However, population growth in other hazard-exposed areas, along with the construction of larger and more expensive homes, has increased overall exposure and recovery costs nationwide.
A 2025 study by the American Geophysical Union found that more than 80% of landfalling US hurricanes since 1980, each costing at least $5 billion, experienced rapid intensification at some point in their life cycle. Rapid intensification is defined as an increase in maximum sustained winds of at least 35 mph within 24 hours.
“A pronounced increasing trend” is evident, particularly across the North Atlantic basin, said Dr. Phil Klotzbach, a senior research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University and a co-author of the study. He noted that storms were observed to intensify in the day leading up to landfall, leaving communities less time to prepare.
“These storms also tend to weaken more slowly as they move inland, extending their damaging impacts,” said Klotzbach.
