Maryland, Nevada, and Virginia Greenlight ZestyAI's Severe Convective Storm Models as SCS Losses Top $50B

 ZestyAI today announced that the Departments of Insurance in Maryland, Nevada, and Virginia have reviewed and accepted ZestyAI’s Severe Convective Storm (SCS) risk models for use in carrier rate and rule filings, bringing the company’s SCS Suite to 32 approved states across the U.S.

Severe convective storms (SCS) have become one of the most persistent and costly sources of insured loss in the U.S., with annual losses exceeding $50 billion in each of the past three years. This trend has accelerated into 2026: in March alone, Gallagher Re reported multiple billion-dollar outbreaks impacting across several regions in the U.S.

“As loss patterns become more localized and volatile, traditional ZIP code-based models are no longer sufficient to capture the true drivers of risk,” said Bryan Rehor.

“These approvals reflect a shared commitment between regulators and carriers to more transparent, property-level models that clearly explain the ‘why’ behind a risk score and support more defensible rate-making.”

The approvals build on continued momentum across the ZestyAI platform, including the recent launch of Z-SPARK™, an AI-powered model that predicts non-weather fire risk at the individual property level. It evaluates the factors that influence ignition and fire spread to help insurers identify the structures most likely to generate costly fire losses.

ZestyAI’s SCS Suite is trained and validated on verified carrier claims data and delivers clear explanations of the factors behind each property’s risk score. By analyzing how local climatology interacts with individual property characteristics, the platform predicts the likelihood and severity of hail and wind claims with far greater precision than traditional territory- or ZIP code–based methods.

Key capabilities include:

• Z-HAIL: Quantifies hail risk using property-level drivers—roof geometry, accumulated damage, and local climatology—to pinpoint the buildings at greatest likelihood of hail damage, even within the same area.
• Z-WIND: Analyzes wind risk using AI-driven 3D analysis of roof condition, complexity, and potential failure points —together with localized wind climatology—to determine which buildings are most susceptible to wind damage.
• Z-STORM: Predicts the frequency and severity of storm damage claims, including hail and wind, examining the interaction between climatology and the unique characteristics of every structure and roof.

ZestyAI’s portfolio of AI-powered risk models has earned more than 200 regulatory approvals nationwide, reinforcing its continued expansion across key insurance markets as carriers adopt more precise, property-level approaches to managing weather and non-weather risk