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Severe Weather Centre
One reliable source for insurance information following severe weather events.
- Latest severe weather events
- Severe weather help
- Past severe weather events
- The cost of severe weather in Canada
- What we’re doing about the cost of severe weather
Helping you stay informed and protected
From knowing how your insurance helps you recover and rebuild to answering your frequently asked insurance questions, we have all the information you need in one place.
Severe weather and Insurance
Severe weather help
- Customer Information Centre
- CAMP (Community Assistance Mobile Pavilion)
- Severe Weather Insurance FAQs
Customer Information Centre
Our expert staff are ready to answer your questions about insurance following severe weather events. From helping you understand how to file a claim to resolving insurance disputes, our Information Officers are here for you.
1-844-2ask-IBC (1-844-227-5422)
M-F 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. EST
CAMP (Community Assistance Mobile Pavilion)
Our Community Assistance Mobile Pavilion (CAMP) is a national program designed to help people who have suffered loss or damage as a result of a natural disaster.
Severe Weather Insurance FAQs
After a disaster, Canadians can expect recovery support from a variety of sources including the Red Cross and Emergency Management Organizations (EMOs).
The cost of severe weather in Canada
Insured damage caused by severe weather events exceeded $2.4 billion in 2025, according to Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ). This makes 2025 the tenth costliest year on record for severe weather–related insured losses in Canada.
Noteworthy severe weather events in 2025 include the late-March ice storm in Ontario and Quebec, May wildfires in Flin Flon, Manitoba, and La Ronge, Saskatchewan, a July hailstorm in Calgary, Alberta, severe storms across the Prairies in August that caused significant hail damage to vehicles in Brooks, Alberta, and December floods in British Columbia.
Largest Severe Weather Events in 2025
March 28–31 | $490 million | |
May | $300 million | |
July | $160 million | |
August | $235 million | |
December | $90 million |
“Severe weather events continue to intensify. Two decades ago, insured losses seldom surpassed $500 million in a year. Today, annual costs exceeding $1 billion have become the norm. This shift demands that we fundamentally rethink how we build, plan and restore communities across our country,” said Celyeste Power, President and CEO, Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). “The best way to keep communities safe and insurance widely available and affordable is to invest seriously in resilience now.”
Between 2006 and 2015, Canada’s annual insured losses due to catastrophic weather events and wildfires totaled $14 billion, adjusted for inflation. By contrast, between 2016 and 2025, annual insured losses due to catastrophic weather events and wildfires totaled $37 billion – nearly tripling the previous decade. The average number of claims have nearly doubled over this same time span.
“We must stop putting Canadians in harms way. As Canada embarks on a historic housing plan, investing in community and household resilience is significantly more cost-effective than paying to rebuild following every disaster,” added Power. “That’s why IBC and its members continue to urge governments at all levels to invest in infrastructure that defends against floods, adopt land-use planning rules that ensure homes are not built on flood plains, facilitate FireSmart initiatives in communities in high-risk wildfire zones, and implement long-delayed changes to building codes that better protect homes and livelihoods.”
Canada’s 10 Highest Insured Loss Years due to Severe Weather on Record (Loss and Adjusted Expenses in 2025 dollars)
Rank | Year | Total losses ($ billion) | Notable severe weather events |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2024 | 9.4 | Calgary hailstorm, Jasper wildfire, remnants of Hurricane Debby, Greater Toronto Area (GTA) floods |
2 | 2016 | 6.5 | Fort McMurray wildfire |
3 | 2013 | 4.2 | Alberta floods, GTA floods, GTA ice storm |
4 | 2023 | 3.8 | Nova Scotia floods, Okanagan and Shuswap–area wildfires |
5 | 2022 | 3.8 | Ontario and Quebec derecho, Hurricane Fiona |
6 | 1998 | 3.1 | Quebec ice storm |
7 | 2020 | 2.7 | Fort McMurray flood, Calgary hailstorm |
8 | 2021 | 2.6 | Calgary hailstorm, British Columbia floods |
9 | 2018 | 2.6 | Ontario and Quebec rainstorms and windstorms |
10 | 2025 | 2.4 | Ontario and Quebec ice storm, multiple Prairie wildfires |
Sources 1983–2007: IBC, PCS Canada, Swiss Re, Deloitte. 2008–2025: CatIQ
What we’re doing about the cost of severe weather
In today's world of extreme weather events, insured catastrophic losses in Canada now routinely exceed $2 billion annually, most of it due to water-related damage. In the decade before 2008, Canadian insurers averaged only $456 million a year in severe weather-related losses.
We continue to have in-depth discussions with the federal and provincial governments on ways to improve the resilience of communities and better manage the costs of flooding for high-risk residential properties in Canada.
In August 2022, Federal, provincial, territorial and governments and Indigenous organizations collaborated with insurers to finalize the "Task Force Report on Flood Insurance and Relocation”. The federal government is now examining options to create a national residential flood insurance program that will offer affordable insurance to all residents at high risk of overland flooding, including storm surge, through a public-private partnership. Most G7 countries already have such a program in place.
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Questions about insurance?
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Learn more about our Consumer Information Centre
Climate Proof Canada
We need to prepare our communities now from ever increasing severe weather events, like floods and wildfires. See what we’re doing to make climate change action work.
What we do
As the leading voice of the Canadian property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry and their customers, we proactively work to shape decisions on policy reforms and regulations and provide consumer education.
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