Eco Report – May 24, 2024 WFHB Local News
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- Daily News
Hello and welcome to Eco Report.
Later in the program, Environmental Correspondent Zyro Roze speaks with Michelle Higgs about how her time as a Community Organizer with Hoosier Action prepared her for her run for Indiana House District 60, which includes parts of Monroe County.
The New York Times reports that global warming creates conditions more favorable to severe storms. As the planet warms, severe storms of all kinds are likely to deliver even bigger payloads of rain. The reason: Warmer air holds more moisture, which effectively increases a storm’s capacity to carry precipitation.
Because the air can hold more moisture, that also means there is more water vapor in the sky that can condense into liquid, forming clouds. The heat energy released into the atmosphere by this condensation is what feeds thunderstorms. In short, more condensation, stronger storms.
Scientists are still trying to understand how this is playing out. Just because the ingredients are in place for a powerful storm doesn’t mean a powerful storm always materializes. Plenty of other factors shape when and whether storms form, and how destructive they become, which means it’s not straightforward to determine how global warming might be affecting overall storm trends.
Theoretically we understand very well what’s happening, said Andreas F. Prein, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. But how this then translates into severe convective storms, and what we saw recently, is a little bit more questionable. Thunderstorms can also produce strong winds that fan out in straight lines rather than
twisters. In a study published last year, Dr. Prein estimated that much larger areas of the central United States were now experiencing these straight-line gusts compared with the early 1980s. Thunderstorm damage is already causing big losses to home insurers.
The market for homeowners insurance has been in turmoil in the United States, and not just because of hurricanes and wildfires. As a New York Times investigation documented this week, severe storms are also causing insurers to lose money on homeowner coverage. These losses are affecting insurers in places like Iowa, Arkansas and Ohio, far from the coastal areas that are most battered by hurricanes.
The New York Times chronicles changes occurring in the insurance industry. The insurance turmoil caused by climate change — which has been concentrated in Florida, California and Louisiana — is fast becoming a contagion, spreading to states like Iowa, Arkansas, Ohio, Utah and Washington. Even in the Northeast, where homeowners insurance was still generally profitable last year, the trends are worsening.
In 2023, insurers lost money on homeowners coverage in 18 states, more than a third of the country, according to a New York Times analysis of newly available financial data. That’s up from 12 states five years ago, and eight states in 2013. The result is that insurance companies are raising premiums by as much as 50 percent or more, cutting back on coverage or leaving entire states altogether. Nationally, over the last decade, insurers paid out more in claims than they received in premiums, according to the ratings firm Moody’s, and those losses are increasing.
The growing tumult is affecting people whose homes have never been damaged and who have dutifully paid their premiums, year after year. Cancellation notices have left them scrambling to find coverage to protect what is often their single biggest investment. As a last resort, many are ending up in high-risk insurance pools created by states that are backed by the public and offer less coverage than standard policies. By and large, state regulators lack strategies to restore stability to the market. I believe we’re marching toward an uninsurable future...
Hello and welcome to Eco Report.
Later in the program, Environmental Correspondent Zyro Roze speaks with Michelle Higgs about how her time as a Community Organizer with Hoosier Action prepared her for her run for Indiana House District 60, which includes parts of Monroe County.
The New York Times reports that global warming creates conditions more favorable to severe storms. As the planet warms, severe storms of all kinds are likely to deliver even bigger payloads of rain. The reason: Warmer air holds more moisture, which effectively increases a storm’s capacity to carry precipitation.
Because the air can hold more moisture, that also means there is more water vapor in the sky that can condense into liquid, forming clouds. The heat energy released into the atmosphere by this condensation is what feeds thunderstorms. In short, more condensation, stronger storms.
Scientists are still trying to understand how this is playing out. Just because the ingredients are in place for a powerful storm doesn’t mean a powerful storm always materializes. Plenty of other factors shape when and whether storms form, and how destructive they become, which means it’s not straightforward to determine how global warming might be affecting overall storm trends.
Theoretically we understand very well what’s happening, said Andreas F. Prein, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. But how this then translates into severe convective storms, and what we saw recently, is a little bit more questionable. Thunderstorms can also produce strong winds that fan out in straight lines rather than
twisters. In a study published last year, Dr. Prein estimated that much larger areas of the central United States were now experiencing these straight-line gusts compared with the early 1980s. Thunderstorm damage is already causing big losses to home insurers.
The market for homeowners insurance has been in turmoil in the United States, and not just because of hurricanes and wildfires. As a New York Times investigation documented this week, severe storms are also causing insurers to lose money on homeowner coverage. These losses are affecting insurers in places like Iowa, Arkansas and Ohio, far from the coastal areas that are most battered by hurricanes.
The New York Times chronicles changes occurring in the insurance industry. The insurance turmoil caused by climate change — which has been concentrated in Florida, California and Louisiana — is fast becoming a contagion, spreading to states like Iowa, Arkansas, Ohio, Utah and Washington. Even in the Northeast, where homeowners insurance was still generally profitable last year, the trends are worsening.
In 2023, insurers lost money on homeowners coverage in 18 states, more than a third of the country, according to a New York Times analysis of newly available financial data. That’s up from 12 states five years ago, and eight states in 2013. The result is that insurance companies are raising premiums by as much as 50 percent or more, cutting back on coverage or leaving entire states altogether. Nationally, over the last decade, insurers paid out more in claims than they received in premiums, according to the ratings firm Moody’s, and those losses are increasing.
The growing tumult is affecting people whose homes have never been damaged and who have dutifully paid their premiums, year after year. Cancellation notices have left them scrambling to find coverage to protect what is often their single biggest investment. As a last resort, many are ending up in high-risk insurance pools created by states that are backed by the public and offer less coverage than standard policies. By and large, state regulators lack strategies to restore stability to the market. I believe we’re marching toward an uninsurable future...