Natural disasters caused $115 BILLION in losses by 2022 – more than $100 billion for the second consecutive year – with Hurricane Ian the second worst weather disaster on record

National disasters cost up to $115 billion in damages this year after hurricanes, floods, severe storms and droughts wreaked havoc around the world.

Hurricane Ian, which devastated the US southeast coast, was the biggest loss-causing event for insurers, with estimated payouts of up to US$65 billion.

The Category 4 storm was the deadliest storm to hit Florida in nearly 90 years, destroying thousands of homes and businesses and killing at least 157 people.

Reinsurance giant Swiss Re estimates that Hurricane Ian was the second costliest insured loss of all time, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The Zurich-based group, which acts as an underwriter for insurers, said: “Hurricane Ian and other extreme weather events such as winter storms in Europe, floods in Australia and South Africa, and hailstorms in France and the United States have an estimated US$115 billion in insured losses from natural disasters so far this year.”

Martin Bertogg, head of catastrophe risks at Swiss Re, added: “Urban development, wealth creation in disaster-prone areas, inflation and climate change are key factors behind extreme weather events leading to increasing losses from natural disasters.

When Hurricane Andrew struck 30 years ago, there had never been a loss of $20 billion before; now there have been seven such hurricanes in the last six years.”

Extreme weather has also hit Europe this year, with extreme summer droughts and wildfires and brutal winter storms earlier this year.

Fort Myers Beach was badly damaged by the Category 4 hurricane that devastated the southwestern part of Florida

A man stands in front of his destroyed home after Hurricane Ian in Matlacha, Florida

Firefighters work at the site of a forest fire in Pumarejo de Tera near Zamora, northern Spain on June 18

An aerial photo shows a tributary of the Loire that has completely dried up after a drought hit France on August 16 in Loireauxence, France.

Children float after the torrential rain that caused flooding in Pakistan in August

Storm Eunice devastated much of Europe in February, causing at least £360m worth of damage in the UK alone.

Wind gusts of 200 km/h, the highest ever recorded in Britain, destroyed houses and trees and even tore apart the O2 Arena in London.

February’s winter storms in Europe caused estimated insured losses of more than US$3.7 billion and put winter storms back on the insurance industry’s agenda, according to Swiss Re.

In Australia, torrential summer rains in February and March led to widespread flooding in Australia estimated at US$4 billion, making it the country’s costliest natural disaster of all time.

Months later, Europe sweltered under extreme heat as record temperatures brought the continent to a standstill.

Waves crash against the seawall at Porthcawl, South Wales, on February 18, 2022 as Storm Eunice hits Britain

Damage to the white roof of London’s O2 Arena after winter storms wreaked havoc

A debris-filled berm from the roofs of three houses demolished during Storm Eunice on Kilburn Park Road, North West London

A man paddles his kayak next to a flooded bus in a flooded street in the city of Milton, Australia in February.

Flooding from a swollen squat near Sydney, Australia led to the evacuation of hundreds of residents in March

Camden, New South Wales (pictured March 8) was hit by “catastrophic” flooding after torrential rain

Scenes of flood damage in South Lismore, New South Wales where four people died

The UK experienced its highest ever heat of 104.5F in July, while the Loire, Rhine and Po rivers in France, Germany and Italy were all dry.

Wildfires ravaged Spain, Portugal and France, destroying vast areas of forest as authorities struggled to control the extreme weather.

Swiss Re said so-called secondary natural disasters such as floods and hailstorms caused more than US$50 billion in insured losses.

Pakistan has been hit by unprecedented monsoon rains, flooding a third of the country – an area the size of Britain – and killing at least 1,700 people.

More than seven million people have been displaced, many living in makeshift tents without mosquito repellent and often without access to clean drinking water or washing facilities.

The dried-up bed of the drought-stricken river Doubs is seen after the summer heat in Arcon, France

Firefighters try to contain a forest fire that spread to the municipalities of Landiras and Guillos in France in July

A thermometer reads 47 degrees in a square in Ourense, Spain, as a blistering heatwave hits Europe

Men battle a forest fire in the town of Aventeira in Portugal as fires sweep across Europe

Experts fear that rising temperatures could cause even more natural disasters in the coming years.

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that unless global warming is limited to a few tenths of a degree, an Earth now regularly plagued by deadly heat, fires, floods and droughts will continue for decades to be “potentially irreversible is.” “.

Today’s children, who may still be alive in 2100, will experience four times more climate extremes than today, even with just a few tenths of a degree more warming than today’s heat, the UN panel warned.

But if temperatures rise nearly 2 degrees Celsius from now, they will feel five times more floods, storms, droughts and heat waves, according to the IPCC’s collection of scientists.

The daily lives of at least 3.3 billion people are already “highly vulnerable to climate change” and 15 times more likely to die from extreme weather, the report said.

2022 marks the second year in a row that estimated insured losses have exceeded $100 billion, continuing the trend of a compound annual increase of 5 to 7 percent over the past decade.