Tornadoes have been in the news a lot this year.
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| Serious hail damage to a home in Wylie, Texas back in April, 2016. Hail is one of the leading causes of weather-related damage in the United States. |
Sixty-two Americans have so far died in twisters so far this year. So you can see why tornadoes are a BIG DEAL.
As expensive as the tornado destruction has been - and it has been expensive - there's a severe weather phenomenon that's been happening a lot this year. That would be hail.
Hail is usually one of the most expensive type of disasters yearly, and this is no exception.
Tornadoes, as horrible as they are, have fairly narrow damage paths. Some are as much as mile wide, but most are much less than that. Tornadoes can travel over dozens or in rare cases hundreds of miles, but usually the damage path is only at most a few miles.
Hail storms, on the other hand, usually cover a much larger footprint of real estate.
Hail very rarely kills people and usually doesn't completely destroy a house. But hail damaged roofs and sometimes punctures through them. Hail breaks windows, hopelessly dents or shreds siding, damages and destroys cars, trashes landscaping and decimates crops.
Especially in cases in which hail punctures roofs, homes can suffer severe water damage. (Torrential rains usually accompany the hail).
On top of all that, hailstones have more and bigger targets to inflict harm. Over the past few years, cities - including in the hail-prone Plains, Midwest and parts of the South - have sprawled outward. These metropolitan areas have miles and miles of suburban housing developments surrounding them.
It used to be the chances were a bad hailstorm would miss a city since it was a small target. Now, not so much. As a result of all these factors and more, hails causes up to $15 billion in damage annually.
The insurance industry is taking notice.
As NPR reports, insurance rates are up 35 percent from a few years ago in Kentucky and Nebraska Rates are up 34 percent in Arkansas 32 percent in Minnesota and 27 percent in Texas, Colorado and Iowa.
Hail damage isn't the only reason these rates went up but it's certainly a factor. .Like in other types of disasters hail its prompting insurance companies to cut back on coverage and the costs the storms incur.
"They're going to scale back coverage primarily on the roofs,' said David Marlett, managing director of the Brantley Risk & Insurance Center at Appalachian State University. He said they will now cover the value of a damaged roof rather the cost of buying a new one. "And they're going to attempt to increase rates to match the risk."
The jury is still out on whether climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of hailstorms, There is preliminary evidence that a warmer climate could produce larger hailstones. The larger the hailstones, the more damage they cause.
I even imagine there will be insurance claims for hail this year in Vermont. Hailstones in Vermont are usually too small to cause much damage, but sometimes there's exceptions. Saturday May 17 was one of them.
Hail up to two inches in diameter - a little bigger than golf balls - struck parts of southern Chittenden County, especially around Hinesburg, St. George and Richmond.
I'm sure those caused at least some damage.
Videos:
Hail crashes through skylights of a Texas home earlier this year. Click on this link to view, or if you see image below, click on that.
Hail crashes through skylights at a Rice Lake, Wisconsin Walmart in July, 2023. As always click on this link to view or if you see the image below, click on that.
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