Addressing Tornado Risk in North America
Tornadoes, part of severe convective storms (SCS), cause significant property damage, especially in the U.S., where economic losses from SCS topped $65 billion in 2025, with insured losses reaching $50 billion. Our parametric tornado insurance, powered by satellite and climate modeling technology, provides fast payouts and up to $100 million in coverage capacity, ensuring crucial financial support in the aftermath of a tornado.
Our Parametric Tornado Insurance for All Industries
Descartes’ parametric tornado cover is designed to address all types of industries: manufacturing, data infrastructure, healthcare, public entities, and more.
Unlike traditional insurance, which requires lengthy claims processes, our parametric insurance pays out based on near real-time tornado data. To compute the parametric payout following a tornado event, we assess how the tornado track impacted the insured location by taking into account the percentage of the coverage area impacted, and the intensity ratings along the tornado footprint per the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale.
This approach provides fast, hassle-free payouts so you can get back to business immediately.
- Transparent Pricing & Fast Payouts: No hidden fees or long waiting periods. Get paid fast based on predefined parameters, ensuring quick recovery.
- Up to $100 Million in Coverage: Protect your most valuable assets with significant coverage capacity.
- Tailored to Your Needs: Customize your policy based on your unique risk profile and exposure, ensuring the right protection for your business.
Our Parametric Tornado Insurance for Utility-Scale Solar Farms
Tornadoes pose a significant threat to solar power plants, with high winds and flying debris capable of shattering panels, bending mounting structures, and damaging inverters. Even low-intensity tornadoes, such as EF0 events, can severely impact solar installations, leading to substantial financial losses.
Descartes' parametric tornado cover is specifically designed to protect utility-scale solar farms against these risks. Leveraging high-resolution satellite imagery, our tornado product accurately detects damage to solar panels. Payout amounts are pre-defined and directly linked to the percentage of the client’s affected surface area, ensuring comprehensive and efficient coverage.
- Accurate Damage Assessment: Receive accurate payouts based on remote damage assessments of your solar farm. Experts in optical imagery use advanced techniques to detect issues like snapped or severely damaged panels.
- Custom Payouts: Compensation based on the exact area damaged on your site, going beyond the EF scale assessment.
- Quick Recovery: Get your operations back online faster with reliable financial support.
4 Steps to Parametric Coverage
Assess
We assess and evaluate the client’s tornado exposure, leveraging our proprietary risk model.
Customize
Design a customized cover, fit to the client’s needs, in which payout structures are indexed according to tornado intensity.
Monitor
Upon policy inception, we monitor the insured's location for tornadoes to determine whether a qualifying storm has occurred.
Payout
Insured client receives a payout within days of reporting a loss, accelerating financial recovery and return to normal operations.
Our case studies are all over the world
Utilizing Machine Learning and real-time monitoring from satellite imagery & IoT, our state-of-the-art technology helps businesses bounce back faster against climate, cyber and other emerging risks.
Capacity
Up to $100M per contract
Benefits Powered by Parametric Tornado Insurance
Our parametric tornado insurance strengthens resilience by:
- Covering economic losses caused by severe convective storms (SCS), including tornado-driven wind and debris damage
- Protecting critical infrastructure and renewable energy assets, including warehouses, data centers, manufacturing facilities, and utility-scale solar farms
- Delivering data-driven, pre-agreed payouts based on tornado track and EF-scale intensity to enable rapid recovery and balance sheet protection
Innovative Parametric Tornado Solutions for Insurance Brokers
In full collaboration with brokers and clients, our team designs customized coverage structured to indemnify based on objective parameters, including track footprint, percentage of impacted area, and intensity along the path.
For utility-scale solar farms, high-resolution satellite imagery is used to assess affected surface area, enabling precise and efficient payouts calibrated to each client’s risk profile and exposure.
FAQ
What triggers a tornado insurance payout?
There are two events that need to occur for the policy to payout:
- A tornado track of at least EF0 passes through the location(s) of the insured, as reported by NOAA agencies.
- Surface of damaged solar panels to be detected by the satellite images.
How is the coverage area determined?
The coverage area is delineated by the precise layout of the insured location(s), as outlined in the solar plant’s location information provided by the client/broker.
How is the data source able to confirm the percentage of damage?
The damage assessment is done by experts in optical imagery leveraging advanced techniques to accurately detect solar powerplant damage, e.g. snapped or severely damaged panels.
How is tornado damage detected via satellite?
We employ very high-resolution satellite imagery to assess the percentage of surface damage within the coverage area caused by the tornado. To ensure impartiality in data processing, we commission an independent third-party agent to certify the data used for payout determinations. If the tornado’s path has breached the predefined coverage area, the third-party agent processes the raw satellite imagery and superimposes the images onto a map depicting the insured location(s) to determine if the client is eligible for a payout.
How does the satellite-based parametric tornado product compare to EF-scale-based parametric insurance?
The EF-scale parametric product is fully applicable to large structural buildings, however, looking solely at an EF-scale to determine the damage to solar panels leads to significant basis risk and potential inaccuracies to the detriment of the Insured. Our research has shown that the satellite-based parametric approach significantly outperforms the EF-scale on capturing historic events adequately, resulting in optimized modelled payouts for solar plants at reasonable rates.
Is this a stand-alone cover or can it be combined with others?
Both tornados and hailstorms present significant risks to the utility-scale solar industry, leading to asset damage and financial loss.
To address these challenges comprehensively, Descartes provides full financial protection for solar project owners by combining our satellite-based tornado cover for solar plants with our radar-based parametric hail product.
Contact Us
Whether you're quoting a complex risk, looking to break into new markets, or just curious about parametric insurance, our team is here to help you win. Reach out and we will get back to you within 48 hours.
