Global catastrophes in the first half of the year have already made 2011 the costliest year on record with respect to economic losses. According to a recent webinar held by Munich Re, a total of 355 events occurred in the first six months of 2011, causing economic losses of around $265 billion. In the U.S. alone, there were 100 events causing more than $18 billion in insured losses.

"It has been a momentous year so far—one for the record books," said Robert P. Hartwig, Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.) president, who spoke at the Munich Re webinar, "2011 Half-Year National Catastrophe Review."

Hartwig noted that three events of the past six months have been added to the list of the 16 costliest insured world disasters. He also said that this year thus far has been unusual in that numerous major disasters fell outside of U.S. soil, explaining a "sense of rewriting the economics of the history of disaster in the U.S. and on the global scale."

While not as brutal as March, April and May, June saw plenty of losses as well. In the first 10 days of June alone, U.S. insurers received more than 45,000 claims from severe weather outbreaks, paying out approximately $250 million to insureds, according to Aon Benfield's "Monthly Catastrophe Recap Report."

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