The Pacific side of the ledger
What El Niño gives back on the Atlantic it takes elsewhere. El Niño simultaneously boosts tropical cyclone activity across the central and east Pacific while suppressing the Atlantic – with direct implications for carriers with Latin American or Pacific coast exposure. Past El Niño analogs include catastrophic California and Peru flooding in 1997–98, driven by supercharged Pacific moisture. California’s insured loss exposure, already stressed after years of wildfire losses and carrier withdrawals from the homeowners market, would face a different but equally severe test from major flood and atmospheric river events under a record-strength El Niño.
