I'll never forget hearing about a violent hailstorm at Fort Collins, Colo., on July 30, 1979. With hailstones as large as a grapefuit, a three-month-old baby died of a fractured skull after being struck by hail while being carried by her mother, who was running with her to seek cover. Luckily, fatalities from hail storms are rare.
Property damage from hail storms, however, is the leading cause of severe thunderstorm losses, according to meteorologist Steve Bowen of Aon Benfield and The Weather Channel. Hail-related property damage can be as minimal as a few damaged shingles to total destruction of crops, homes, commercial buildings and vehicles.
$1 billion storms on the rise
While hail loss claims decreased 21% from 2013 through 2015, according to a recently released ForeCAST report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau, the overall costs of hail-related claims in recent years have increased dramatically.
U.S. insurers paid almost nine million claims for hail losses, totaling more than $54 billion from 2000 through 2013, according to data from Verisk's A-PLUS property database. And the average claim severity during the period 2008-2013 was 65% higher than it was from 2000 through 2007.
A total of 2,116,980 hail loss claims were processed from Jan. 1, 2013 through Dec. 31, 2015. Multiple severe hail storms caused billions of dollars' worth of damage across the United States. In April 2015 alone, powerful storms with hail caused widespread damage across Texas, Missouri and Illinois. Additional storms caused hail damage across the Central, Southeast and Northeast U.S. Each of these storms are estimated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to have caused over $1 billion in damage.
Homeowners have most hail claims
Personal Property Homeowners was the policy type most affected by hail loss claims from 2013 through 2015. On average, Personal Property Homeowners policies were represented over 50% more often than the next most popular policy type, Personal Automobile, in hail loss claims over the same three-year span.
Curious what months of the year had the most hail claims from 2013 throught 2015? Not surprisingly: May comes in No. 1 (165,087 claims on average), followed by April (149,040 claims on average), then June (129,085 claims on average).
Here are the top 10 states with the largest total number of hail-loss claims from 2013 through 2015:
A rainbow soars over the landscape and hail stones cover a parking lot. Thousands of cars received heavy damage from ping-pong ball sized hail. (Photo: Mike Jacoby/AP Photo)
10. Indiana
3% of U.S. hail claims, 2013-2015
30,733 claims (2013)
21,996 claims (2014)
12,552 claims (2015)
Three-year total number of hail-related claims: 65,281.
This photo shows a tornado and severe thunderstorm with hail, near Alpena, S.D., about 15 miles southwest of Wessignton Springs, on June 18, 2014. (Photo: TVNweather.com, Connor McCrorey, via AP Photo)
9. South Dakota
4% of U.S. hail claims, 2013-2015
27,819 claims (2013)
30,634 claims (2014)
16,428 claims (2015)
Three-year total number of hail-related claims: 74,881.
Hail stones fall during a storm, covering the grass and sidewalks. (Photo: iStock)
8. Minnesota
4% of U.S. hail claims, 2013-2015
45,860 claims (2013)
16,688 claims (2014)
30,641 claims (2015)
Three-year total number of hail-related claims: 93,189.
Vehicles carefully navigate the roadway during a hailstorm (Photo: iStock)
7. Missouri
4% of U.S. hail claims, 2013-2015
14,703 claims (2013)
45,264 claims (2014)
34,953 claims (2015)
Three-year total number of hail-related claims: 94,920.
Storm clouds appear over a home near Meers, Okla., April 26, 2016. Strong thunderstorms capable of dropping grapefruit-size hail and producing a few intense tornadoes popped up across the central U.S. after forecasters warned that millions of people faced a significant danger. (Photo: Robert MacDonald/AP Photo)
6. Oklahoma
5% of U.S. hail claims, 2013-2015
60,131 claims (2013)
11,760 claims (2014)
26,302 claims (2015)
Three-year total number of hail-related claims: 98,193.
Golfball sized hail litters the ground. (Photo: Rogelio V. Solis/AP Photo)
5. Illinois
6% of U.S. hail claims, 2013-2015
24,002 claims (2013)
63,723 claims (2014)
32,788 claims (2015)
Three-year total number of hail-related claims: 120,513.
Hail stacks up under the windshield wipers of a vehicle after a summer storm. (Photo: David Zalubowski/AP Photo)
4. Kansas
6% of U.S. hail claims, 2013-2015
52,404 claims (2013)
39,222 claims (2014)
36,337 claims (2015)
Three-year total number of hail-related claims: 127,963.
The exterior siding of a home is damaged from hail in Blair, Neb., June 4, 2014, following a severe storm that passed through the region the previous evening. Blair and other cities were pounded by large hail as wave after wave of powerful thunderstorms moved through the midwest. (Photo: Nati Harnik/AP Photo)
3. Nebraska
7% of U.S. hail claims, 2013-2015
45,860 claims (2013)
80,293 claims (2014)
22,193 claims (2015)
Three-year total number of hail-related claims: 148,346.
Vehicles struggle to navigate down Grant Street south of downtown Denver through heavy rains and hail as a severe thunderstorm sweeps over the metropolitan area June 25, 2015. (Photo: David Zalubowski/AP Photo)
2. Colorado
9% of U.S. hail claims, 2013-2015
32,741 claims (2013)
99,565 claims (2014)
50,285 claims (2015)
Three-year total number of hail-related claims: 182,591.
A car damaged by a hail storm sits in a parking lot March 24, 2016, in Plano, Texas. An early spring hailstorm in North Texas broke windows in some homes and vehicles. (Photo: LM Otero/AP Photo)
1. Texas
19% of U.S. hail claims, 2013-2014
122,055 claims (2013)
134,028 claims (2014)
138,539 claims (2015)
Three-year total number of hail-related claims: 394,572.
Texas was the top state in hail loss claims from 2013 through 2015 with 394,572 hail loss claims. This was more than double the state with the second highest amount of hail claims, Colorado.
The top 10 states represented 66% of the total number of hail loss claims during this timeframe.
Continue reading to find out the top five policy types identified in hail-loss claims from Jan. 1, 2013 through Dec. 31, 2015, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau:
Rain clouds and hail approach from the north as seen from Bernal Heights Hill in San Francisco, March 7, 2016. (Photo: Jeff Chiu/AP Photo)
5. Personal Property — Fire
1% of U.S. hail loss policy claims, 2013-2015
8,340 claims (2013)
10,449 claims (2014)
10,808 claims (2015)
Three-year total number of hail-related claims: 29,597.
Workmen use a cherry picker to remove the ceramic roofing tiles from the guard booth at Mississippi's primary psychiatric hospital in Whitfield, Miss., March 21, 2013. An official estimated the hail storm damage exceeded $1 million for the hospital and a nearby facility for people with developmental disabilities. The holes in roofs and broken windows at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield and the Hudspeth Regional Center were only part of the damage that also included facility and employees personal vehicles. (Photo: Rogelio V. Solis/AP Photo)
4. Commercial Multi-Peril
2% of U.S. hail loss policy claims, 2013-2015
17,996 claims (2013)
18,403 claims (2014)
12,772 claims (2015)
Three-year total number of hail-related claims: 49,171.
Potato crop damaged by hail. (Photo: iStock)
3. Personal Property — Farm
5% of U.S. hail loss policy claims, 2013-2015
14,122 claims (2013)
59,892 claims (2014)
34,463 claims (2015)
Three-year total number of hail-related claims: 108,477.
A car badly damaged by hail. (Photo: iStock)
2. Personal Auto
34% of U.S. hail loss policy claims, 2013-2015
270,519 claims (2013)
288,342 claims (2014)
164,882 claims (2015)
Three-year total number of hail-related claims: 723,734.
A man secures tarp on a roof of a house damaged by a severe storm on May 22, 2014, in Duanesburg, N.Y. (Photo: Mike Groll/AP Photo)
1. Personal Property — Homeowners
53% of U.S. hail loss policy clains, 2013-2015
376,076 claims (2013)
418,410 claims (2014)
323,983 claims (2015
Three-year total number of hail-related claims: 1,118,469.
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