Wildfires that ignited on the outskirts of Spokane in eastern Washington on Aug. 1 arrived more than a month ahead of schedule, according to local officials. And fire season is only half over, they warn.
When it comes to assessing climate risk in the mortgage and insurance industries, the Spokane tragedy reflects the new reality that the traditional “schedule” is being tossed out the window.
“The magnitude of hail damage is increasing in parts of the country that really hadn’t had very much hail damage before,” says Cliff Rossi, executive-in-residence at the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University. “The same goes for tornadoes or coastal flooding in places that didn’t use to have coastal flooding, and insurers are missing those.”
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