Tornado Alley’s shift into Ohio is causing insurance costs to surge

By: Noah Cavin
Posted on: Friday, June 6, 2025

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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) – Tornado Alley has shifted into the Buckeye State, causing insurance rates to rise for all Ohioans.

“We’ve seen many tornado outbreaks in Ohio in the past few years. In fact, severe convective storms are the most expensive peril,” said Mark Friedlander, national spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute.

There’s been at least 24 tornadoes in the state in each of the last six years, and last year’s mark of 74 tornadoes shattered the previous record of 62 set in 1992.

According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, tornadoes caused more than $24 million in property damage in Ohio last year.

While severe weather isn’t the only reason for the increase in insurance costs, it’s certainly a key factor, Friedlander said.

Ohio saw a 23% increase in annual insurance premium costs from 2021 to 2024, and rural ZIP codes across the country saw a 22% increase in that span, according to a report by the Consumer Federation of America.

Experts like Friedlander say the uptick in severe weather across Ohio is not expected to stop anytime soon, which means the price of insurance will continue to rise.

“This wasn’t just a one-year or two-year anomaly,” said Friedlander. “Year after year, severe convective storms are shifting further east, causing more insured property loss damage than ever before, and that certainly plays into the equation when it comes to factoring cost of risk, which is how insurance is priced.”

Tornado Alley is a section of the United States that is prone to more frequent and severe tornadoes than any other part of the world. The anomaly begins as the warm, moist air rising from the Gulf of Mexico collides with the cold, dry air from the Rocky Mountains and the warm, dry air from the Southwest.

Climate scientists say the Gulf of Mexico’s temperature has risen significantly, and that’s caused Tornado Alley to shift eastward.

Nicholas Ferreri, chief meteorologist at WANE 15 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, echoed that idea.

“If the predictions are that the Gulf continues to warm, that gives us even more energy down there,” said Ferreri. “So, if the source of that warm air to begin with is even hotter, that’s gonna continue to fuel more ingredients to give us severe weather.”

Ferreri covers two counties in Ohio – Van Wert and Mercer – that are prone to more tornadoes.

“We’re just waiting here at the station to find out what happens, because it just seems that if there’s going to be severe weather, it’s going to happen in those counties,” said Ferreri.

These counties are now in Tornado Alley, according to John Brownlee, property and casualty managing director of the Counties of Ohio Risk Sharing Authority, or CORSA.

According to predictive severe weather models that Brownlee and CORSA have been shown, more of Ohio will be in Tornado Alley in the near future.

“Those models are moving this way,” said Brownlee. “The statistics are telling us we’re likely to have more claims than what we’ve had historically in the future.”

Tornado Alley’s eastward creep has also creeped into budgets for local governments in southeast Ohio.

CORSA, which buys insurance for Ohio county governments, doubled deductibles on every claim except auto claims from $2,500 to $5,000 this year.

It is the first time that CORSA has raised its prices since its inception in 1987.

CORSA buys insurance for every county government in southeast Ohio.

Even though Ohio’s Appalachian region is at less risk of tornadoes, insurance is priced at the state level, meaning all Ohioans will have to pay for Tornado Alley’s shift into the Buckeye State.

“Even though one specific community may be a bit lower risk than other communities, the risk is spread across the state,” said Friedlander.