Naming Storms May Be Driving Up Insurance Rates

By: Meteorologist Ray Hawthorne Email

Posted: Tue 12:38 PM, Jan 22, 2008

Even though hurricane season is long over, the angst over insurance rates is not.

A report in the Houston Chronicle says naming borderline tropical storms could be driving insurance rates higher. Some meteorologists argue that a few tropical storms named during the past season may not have been named in years past. Officials at the National Hurricane Center deny this allegation and say their standards for naming storms hasn't changed. Insurance rates are based, in part, on historical records which have shown an increase in the number of named storms since the mid-1990s.

Thursday Morning Weather