With 100 inches of snow collapsing Boston roofs, winter storms driving people off the road in South Carolina, and bitter cold bursting pipes in the Midwest, it's been a tough winter for insurers. Winter will come to an end, but there's more trouble for insurers just around the corner. With March comes the start of severe thunderstorm season, as warmer weather from the south clashes with cold air from the north—spawning all kinds of unwelcome weather. Chief among them is hail.
Verisk Climate estimates that from 2008 through 2012, hail damaged about 10 million properties and drove a 65 percent spike in hail claim severity. Verisk analyzed the likelihood that damaging hail affected a property during the preceding seven years. The analysis assessed hail damage potential using the Hail Damage Score™, which provides an address-level score from 1 to 10.
Here are the top 10 riskiest states for hail damage exposure:
What's your company's experience with hail? See how it compares with our hail claims analysis, Property Hail Claims in the United States, which offers a variety of hail-related insights, including:
- Trends for hail claim losses and severity
- Costs of repairing hail damage
- A look ahead at emerging risks