Some observers may label the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season as a “quiet” year due to zero U.S. hurricane landfalls, but from an insurance and catastrophe risk perspective, that conclusion misses the point—and, potentially, the risk.
Executive Summary
The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season produced no U.S. Atlantic hurricane landfalls—but that outcome masks important lessons for insurers.Here, Verisk meteorology and scientific risk modeling experts Tory Farney and Wesley Terwey unpack why storm counts, landfalls and insured losses often diverge, and what last year's season can reveal about hurricane risk heading into the 2026 season. Drawing on catastrophe modeling insights and historical context, they explain why so-called "quiet" seasons can be misleading—and why preparedness matters even when forecasts call for lower activity.
By the numbers, 2025 finished close to average. The Atlantic basin produced 13 named storms, five hurricanes and four major hurricanes, aligning closely with long‑term averages for total activity. What set the season apart was where storms went, not how many formed. For the first time since 2015, no hurricanes made U.S. landfall, even as powerful storms tracked across the broader Atlantic and Caribbean.
It’s often overlooked that three storms reached Category 5 intensity in 2025, a tally second only to the 2005 season. In other words, the season generated extreme risk signals, even though those storms never intersected with major U.S. exposures.
That distinction matters for insurers, particularly when interpreting seasonal outlooks, claims experience and forward-looking risk.
