Déjà Vu: Severe Hail Impacts Over 500K Homes, Breaking Records

CoreLogic estimates 1-inch or greater hail fell on over 660,000 homes from March 13 and 14

The beginning of the 2024 severe convective storm season has already broken single day records from 2023 — a year infamous for record-setting insured severe convective storm losses.

A strong upper-level disturbance spawned dozens of severe convective storms across the central U.S. on Wednesday, March 13 and Thursday, March 14 causing material — and at times destructive — property damage. According to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center daily storm reports, hail as large as softballs fell in select locations across the central U.S.

The states most heavily impacted on March 13 – in terms of greatest hail size and number of homes impacted – were Kansas and Missouri (Table 1). Large hail greater than 3 inches fell on nearly 1,800 homes in Johnson County, Kansas, just west of Kansas City (Table 2). Hail of this size is severe enough to cause extensive roof damage, including entire replacement.

The most heavily impacted counties in Kansas and Missouri on March 13 include Johnson County and Wyandotte County in Kansas and Clay County in Missouri (Table 2).

CoreLogic Weather Verification Services (WVS) and the Reactor™ Platform captured the March 13 hail swaths across the U.S. (Figure 1).

Additional hail fell across the country on the night between March 13 and 14. The most severe hail fell on nearly 500,000 homes in Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois, and Arkansas, among others (Table 3). There was a particular concentration in highly developed areas around St. Louis, including St. Charles and St. Louis Counties in Missouri and Madison County in Illinois (Table 4).

On March 14, hail fell across a large portion of the U.S., but the most severe hail impacted the cities and towns surrounding St. Louis (Figure 2).

How Will the 2024 Severe Convective Storm Season Compare to 2023?

Insured losses caused by severe convective storms made headlines in 2023. Severe convective storms were once considered a secondary peril, whose risk was not modeled with the same scrutiny as hurricanes or earthquakes. However, when year-end insured losses equaled or surpassed that of a major landfalling hurricane, the story changed.

The hail impacts in Kansas and Missouri on March 13 were worse than any single day in 2023 (Table 5).

It is too early to predict the severe convective storm impact on carriers’ loss ratios or if 2024 will be a repeat of last year. However, it appears that 2024 is picking up where 2023 left off in terms of severe hail activity. It is imperative that insurers understand and quantify their portfolio’s severe convective storm risk in order to avoid high catastrophe losses by year-end in 2024. If this year is to repeat 2023 and a major hurricane was to make landfall in the U.S., insured losses could be catastrophic.

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This will be the final CoreLogic Hazard HQ Command Central™ update on the mid-March severe convective storm unless new data becomes available.

To learn more about severe convective storm risk in the U.S., download the CoreLogic 2024 Severe Convective Storm Report.

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Contact: Please email [email protected] with questions about the mid-March severe convective storms, CoreLogic Weather Verification Services, the Reactor Platform or any CoreLogic event response notifications. Visit www.hazardhq.com for updates and information on catastrophes across the globe.