No U.S. Hurricane Landfalls, but 2025 Season Exposes Growing Preparedness Gaps

MALVERN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Despite recording no U.S. hurricane landfalls for the first time in a decade, the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season generated deadly tropical storms, above-average days of major hurricane activity, and millions of dollars in U.S. losses, underscoring the need for year-round preparedness against increasingly unpredictable weather risks, according to the Insurance Information Institute’s (Triple-I’s) latest issues brief, Hurricanes: State of the Risk.

While the season produced fewer named storms than initially forecast, four of the five storms that reached hurricane strength intensified into major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher), including three Category 5 storms. That marked only the second year on record in which the Atlantic basin produced more than two Category 5 hurricanes.

Although the impacts fell short of the catastrophic U.S. hurricane losses recorded in 2024, the 2025 season did cause some damage. Tropical Storm Chantal made landfall in South Carolina, resulting in $500 million in economic losses, according to Gallagher Re’s Natural Catastrophe and Climate Report: Q3 2025.

Inland Flooding Exposes Protection Gaps

Inland flooding emerged as one of the season’s most consequential threats. Tropical Storm Chantal dumped up to 10 inches of rain across multiple North Carolina counties, where fewer than 1 percent of households carried flood insurance. In Arizona, the neighboring towns of Globe and Miami were largely uninsured when torrential rain from eastern North Pacific Category 2 Hurricane Priscilla struck the region. This came just weeks after deadly flash flooding had already impacted the area, compounding the communities’ vulnerability.

“The 2025 hurricane season is a powerful reminder that the absence of U.S. hurricane landfalls does not equate to reduced risk,” said Triple-I CEO Sean Kevelighan. “Flooding from weaker or fast-moving storms continues to drive loss of life and economic damage, particularly in inland communities that remain underinsured. Closing protection gaps and investing in resilience must be national priorities, not just coastal ones.”

Global reinsurer Munich Re described the season as “masking sharp regional shocks and a very narrow escape for some of the most insured coastlines.” The company projects that insured losses from U.S. hurricanes will continue to rise as warming ocean temperatures increase the likelihood of intense storms and extreme rainfall.

Demographic and development trends continue to amplify risk. While flood-prone coastal counties in Florida, Texas, New York, and Louisiana experienced net population declines in 2024 for the first time since 2019, population growth in other hazard-exposed areas and the construction of larger, more expensive homes have increased overall exposure and recovery costs nationwide.

Rapid Intensification Raises Stakes

Warming oceans are contributing to rapid intensification, defined as an increase in maximum sustained winds of at least 35 mph within 24 hours. A 2025 study by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) found that more than 80 percent of landfalling U.S. hurricanes since 1980, collectively costing at least $5 billion, experienced rapid intensification at some point during their lifecycle.

Dr. Phil Klotzbach, senior research scientist, Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, and coauthor of the AGU study, said evidence suggests “a pronounced increasing trend,” particularly across the North Atlantic basin. Klotzbach, who is also a Triple-I non-resident scholar, noted that when storms rapidly intensify in the day leading up to landfall, communities often have less time to prepare. “These storms also tend to weaken more slowly as they move inland, extending their damaging impacts.”

Hurricane Melissa, the season’s strongest and deadliest storm worldwide, rapidly intensified into a Category 5 before striking Jamaica, killing over 100 people and causing damage equivalent to roughly 40% of the country’s 2024 GDP. The storm underscores the global threat of fast-strengthening storms and the urgent need for communities to plan.

Forecasting Tools Evolve Alongside Risk

Advances in computing power, data collection, and artificial intelligence are improving how forecasters and insurers assess hurricane risk. While wind speed has traditionally been the primary indicator of storm damage, Klotzbach suggests barometric pressure can offer a more accurate and timely measure of a hurricane’s destructive potential. That metric served as the trigger for the $150 million parametric insurance policy for Jamaica, which paid out in full following Hurricane Melissa.

AI-driven forecasting models are also enhancing predictions of rapid intensification. A Google DeepMind model reportedly provided critical decision support to the National Hurricane Center ahead of Melissa’s landfall, enabling forecasters, for the first time, to predict that a storm would evolve into a Category 5 hurricane from the moment it formed as a Category 1 system.

“These innovations can help insurers price risk more accurately and reduce losses,” Kevelighan said, “and they are most effective when paired with public-private efforts to strengthen building codes, encourage broader flood insurance coverage in high-risk areas, and invest in mitigation measures that reduce overall claims exposure.”

About the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I)

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