Global insured losses from natural catastrophes reached $92 billion during the first nine months of 2026, 29 per cent below the 10-year average ($128 billion) and the lowest year-to-date insured loss total since 2019, according to a new report from Gallagher Re.

The global reinsurance broking and advisory firm’s Q3 2026 Natural Catastrophe and Climate Report found that the insurance industry has now experienced six consecutive quarters without a single natural catastrophe event generating more than $10 billion in insured losses, representing one of the longest such stretches in decades.

Gallagher Re said despite $54 billion economic loss events and $24 billion insured loss events globally, both broadly in line with historical averages, lower event severity has kept aggregate losses well below average.

Steve Bowen, Gallagher Re chief science officer said at first glance, 2026 appears to have been a relatively favourable year for the insurance industry.

“Global insured losses have remained below recent averages, largely because the industry has avoided a meaningful concentration of major loss events,” he said. “We have now gone six consecutive quarters without a natural catastrophe generating more than $10 billion in insured losses.”

He said that was an unusually long stretch by historical standards.

“However, catastrophe activity and catastrophe losses are not necessarily the same thing,” Mr Bowen said. “The world has still experienced a sizeable number of significant disasters in 2026, but relatively few have occurred in locations or under circumstances that generated outsize insured losses.”

While catastrophe losses have remained subdued, severe convective storms continued to dominate industry loss experience. Globally, SCS accounted for nearly 60 per cent of all insured catastrophe losses during the first three quarters of the year.

Hurricane Isaias was the first major hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season. Because it made landfall as a Category 2 storm in the Florida Panhandle on October 9, it was not included in the $92 billion nine-month loss total.

It is expected to drive a low to mid-single-digit billion insured loss. Isaias set the record for the latest calendar year first hurricane formation in the Atlantic basin dating to 1851.

Gallagher Re’s report cautioned that the recent period of below-average catastrophe losses should not be interpreted as evidence of reduced underlying risk.

Rising temperatures and prolonged drought were also major themes this year.

Global temperatures during the first nine months of the year ranked as the second warmest such period observed in the modern record dating to at least 1850. Multiple countries, including France, the UK and the contiguous US each registered their warmest summer on record.

The resulting impacts included heightened wildfire activity, agricultural losses, transportation disruption and substantial drought-related insurance claims, particularly in France.

Mr Bowen said many of the costliest events instead produced substantial economic, humanitarian and societal impacts, with much of the recovery ultimately falling on governments, businesses and affected communities.

“Looking ahead, the potential transition towards La Niña conditions in 2027 is a reminder of how quickly the catastrophe landscape can shift from one year to the next,” Mr Bowen said. “Periods like this provide an opportunity to reassess exposures, accumulations and portfolio resilience.”

He said history tells us that more active and costlier periods can return and organisations that use quieter years to prepare are often best positioned when conditions do eventually shift.