An intense outbreak of tempestuous weather hit the U.S. in anunusually early start to the severe weather season, reportsAonBenfield in its Global Catastrophe Recap for Feb. 2017. Whilewinter weather caused disruption in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastearly in the month, the real trouble was later on when severethunderstorms hit other parts of the country.

According to the report by Aon's catastrophe model developmentteam, the most notable of the activity was five outbreaks of severeweather that hit the U.S. during February, including 60 confirmedtornado touch-downs in the Midwest, Southeast and Mid-Atlantic.Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee wereamong the hardest-hit states. Large hail and damaging winds afflicted homes,businesses vehicles and other structures, with total economic andinsured losses from this one event minimally estimated in thehundreds of millions of dollars.

California once again saw significant precipitationand flooding throughout much of the state during themonth. The most notable of these events prompted theevacuation of 200,000 residents as Lake Oroville reached fullcapacity and threatened to breach its dam. This resulted inthe first use of the auxiliary spillway in the reservoir’s history.The cost to repair the spillways were listed at up to $200million.