Stronger Storms And Higher Insurance Rates Are The Fallout From Climate Change

We’re all familiar with the effects of climate change. Rising sea levels, shrinking glaciers, and increased temperatures are a few of the first things that come to mind.

While many of these impacts seem impossibly far off, new information sheds light on just how climate catastrophes could catch up to us where we feel it most – at home.

2021 Climate Catastrophe Report

Each year, hundreds of natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornados, and wildfires affect the well-being of our communities, infrastructure, and residences. In fact, severe weather is the most common cause of property damage and loss, displacing thousands every year. The economic impacts of these disasters are astounding, accounting for over $56B in losses just last year.

A CoreLogic 2021 Climate Catastrophe Report claims we saw $1.46B in damages from Wildfires, $7.46B in damages from severe weather, $15B in damages from winter storms, and an incredible $33B in damages from hurricanes.

This doesn’t even take into account some of the ancillary economic effects of climate change.

“By leveraging granular data for the increasing frequency and severity of catastrophes, we are able to see that more than 14.5 million homes were impacted to some degree by natural hazards in 2021. That’s about 1 in every 10 homes in the United States,” said Tom Larsen, Industry Solutions principal at CoreLogic.

Is Texas Weathering Climate Change?

Unfortunately, Texas felt the sting of these statistics in several ways.

Apart from our reputation as a tornado hub, we’re also gaining notoriety as a hurricane hot spot. Last season alone, Texas reported a remarkable 21 named storms with four major hurricanes.

And who can forget the winter storm to end them all? Last February, Texas witnessed one of the most catastrophic winter storms ever recorded. As this unprecedented freeze affected areas throughout the state, our electric grid was over-extended, leading to large-scale power outages and $10.3B in damages.

Insurance Rates: The Disaster After The Disaster

John Nielsen-Gammon, Director of the Texas Center for Climate Studies, believes these climate catastrophes present themselves in multiple ways.

“The risks of climate change grow gradually and usually imperceptibly,” Nielsen-Gammon explains. “It takes disasters for us to realize anything is wrong. And by that time, it’s already too late.”

“Hurricane Harvey was a multi-billion-dollar disaster and obviously very damaging,” he says. “But there are similar serious economic impacts from flood plains even in Dallas. These creep up over time. As time goes on, we’ll see more disasters and higher risk assessments. This affects insurance rates. And if you can’t afford to live there anymore, it becomes expensive to sell the property. So, you see massive economic impacts based on risk alone.”

As climate change plays a bigger role in our lives, it’s extremely important to asset the impacts at home. From catastrophe events to cost inflation and insurance concerns, there are so many ways weather influences the real estate market.