2025 Natural catastrophe snapshot: From wildfires to global risk shifts
Read the 2025 Natural catastrophe snapshot report
Howden Re has published its 2025 natural catastrophe snapshot, providing an overview of the key catastrophe events of the year and the evolving drivers of insured loss across global markets.
In contrast to recent years dominated by peak perils, 2025 saw lower insured losses from traditional headline events. In the USA, a relatively quiet hurricane season and below-average severe convective storm losses marked a notable shift from the loss experience of the past five years. Outside the US, insured losses were driven by a series of localised but impactful events across Asia and Europe, reinforcing the growing importance of exposure concentration and secondary risk drivers.
The defining event of the year occurred early, when extreme wildfire conditions in Southern California led to the Palisades and Eaton fires in January. These fires damaged or destroyed more than 15,000 structures, demonstrating how wildfire risk outside its traditional seasons can generate severe losses when extreme weather coincides with high-value asset concentration.
“What stood out in 2025 was not a single peak peril dominating the year, but the way accumulation, timing and exposure combined to drive losses,” said Anna Pergerson, Managing Director, Head of Catastrophe R&D, Howden Re. “The California wildfires were a clear example of how catastrophe risk remains highly volatile, reinforcing the need for more sophisticated accumulation management and portfolio-level insight.”
Beyond the US, the snapshot highlights events including Storm Éowyn, the strongest UK windstorm in a decade from a gust perspective, Hurricane Melissa, which reached Category 5 intensity in the Atlantic, and the Mw 7.7 earthquake in central Myanmar, which resulted in severe human impacts but limited insured losses due to low insurance penetration. Super Typhoon Ragasa brought extreme rainfall, storm surge and damaging winds to Taiwan and Hong Kong, highlighting how improved forecasting and preparedness can reduce insured losses even during severe events.
“Across much of the world, the protection gap remains a defining feature of catastrophe risk,” said Myrto Papaspiliou, Head of International Catastrophe Model Research, Howden Re. “Events such as the Myanmar earthquake and intense storms in Asia & the Caribbean show how economic losses are increasingly outpacing insured losses, even as asset concentration and urbanisation continue to rise. Closing that gap will require more flexible risk transfer solutions and a long-term focus on resilience.”
The 2025 Natural catastrophe snapshot highlights how catastrophe risk is evolving beyond traditional frameworks, underscoring the importance of analytics, innovation and adaptability as the reinsurance market responds to an increasingly complex global risk landscape.