Even with no hurricanes making landfall in the US in 2025, insured losses from global natural catastrophes surpassed the $100 billion mark for the sixth consecutive year, according to an analysis by Swiss Re Institute, the research arm of the reinsurance company.
The $107 billion estimate is 24% lower than last year, when Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit the US back to back. Nevertheless, it shows that extensive property damage from weather volatility, fueled by climate change, has become the new normal.
This year’s $100-billion-plus tally “reminds us that elevated natural catastrophe losses are no longer outliers but the new baseline,” Monica Ningen, Swiss Re’s CEO of US Property and Casualty, said in a statement. “It’s critical we double down on investing in resilience and adaptation so communities can be better prepared for the future.”
Although the US was spared hurricanes this year, the January fires that ravaged the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Altadena accrued $40 billion in insured losses, making them together the costliest-ever wildfire event globally
Following a multi-year trend, severe convective storms (thunderstorms) also racked up major losses, coming to roughly $50 billion. Europe saw damaging hail storms in the early summer. But most of the insured storm losses occurred in the US and were the result of tornadoes in March and May.
The US is the world’s biggest insurance market and experiences frequent extreme weather, and therefore saw the lion’s share of insured losses — $89 billion. Insured losses make up only a share of the total economic losses from catastrophes. Those came to $220 billion in 2025, according to Swiss Re.
Apollo Global Management Inc. is building out its risk review process to reflect the impact on asset valuations of extreme weather.
The decision comes amid a rise in the damage done to physical assets by floods, storms and wildfires. Apollo, which has been conducting so-called top-down analyses for such risks since 2023, is now broadening that approach to allow for a more granular process to identify company-level risks before closing deals, says Jaycee Pribulsky, Apollo’s chief sustainability officer.
“Both private equity and private credit teams are expanding bottom-up, asset-level evaluations of physical and transition risks,” she told Bloomberg.
- Apollo Global Management Inc. is building out its risk review process to reflect the impact on asset valuations of extreme weather.
- Climate-driven disruptions can directly impact operating costs, supply chains and insurance markets, making financial risk factors more immediate, says Jaycee Pribulsky, Apollo’s chief sustainability officer.
- Efforts to quantify physical and transition risks are spreading across private markets, with companies like KKR & Co. introducing new credit climate risk models and Wall Street lenders producing research to support the need to treat extreme weather shocks as financial risks.
Apollo Global Management Inc. is building out its risk review process to reflect the impact on asset valuations of extreme weather.
The decision comes amid a rise in the damage done to physical assets by floods, storms and wildfires. Apollo, which has been conducting so-called top-down analyses for such risks since 2023, is now broadening that approach to allow for a more granular process to identify company-level risks before closing deals, says Jaycee Pribulsky, Apollo’s chief sustainability officer.
“Both private equity and private credit teams are expanding bottom-up, asset-level evaluations of physical and transition risks,” she told Bloomberg.
“Climate-driven disruptions can directly impact operating costs, supply chains and insurance markets,” and that makes financial risk factors “more immediate,” she said.