The insurance industry is launching a new research institute Thursday to study severe thunderstorms, which are causing increasing property damage, and the storms’ potential link to climate change.
The institute, led by a top expert on severe storms, opens as severe thunderstorms are causing a growing share of insurer losses, driving rate hikes and startling insurance companies.
“For a long time, they’ve been underappreciating this hazard,” said institute leader Victor Gensini, an atmospheric science professor at Northern Illinois University.
This year will mark the third straight year that severe thunderstorms cause more damage to insured property in the U.S. than any other kind of natural disaster, said Mark Friedlander, a spokesperson for the industry-funded Insurance Information Institute.
