Potentially damaging hail, bushfires and other wild weather events remain a threat in the next few months even after a benign spring, NRMA Insurance says.

The IAG-owned insurer received 5286 claims this spring for wild weather damage to home and motor, its “quietest” since 2016 when the business started to track claims.

Damage to homes accounted for most of the wild weather claims, at 4636, with over one-third the result of severe events such as flash flooding and thunderstorms.

“Despite claims numbers being relatively low, widespread weather events across the country last spring indicates there is more severe weather to come this summer,” NRMA Insurance said in its Wild Weather Tracker report.

The report says thunderstorms, hail and flash flooding on the east coast and a bushfire in Perth caused substantial damage to properties and motor in the September-November period.

“These events serve as a reminder of the varied and challenging weather conditions our country
experiences particularly in the warmer months, and that we all need to be doing our part to get prepared,” EGM Direct Claims Luke Gallagher said in the report.

The report says a drier and warmer summer than average can be expected across the northern and western parts of Australia, influenced by an El Nino and positive Indian Ocean Dipole.

“This will lead to an elevated risk of bushfires and grassfires compared to the past few years when
the country was impacted by widespread rainfall under La Niña conditions.”

The report also expects seasonal thunderstorms to affect many parts of the country, especially in eastern NSW and eastern Queensland, with the potential for localised heavy rain, flash flooding and hail and damaging winds.

The spring claims tally showed NRMA Insurance received 3200 wild weather claims in NSW, 383 in Queensland, 188 in the ACT, 383 in SA and 1101 in WA. A small number of additional claims were from the NT and Tasmania.

About 39% of all NSW home claims were due to wild weather with South West Sydney being hard hit by hail-producing thunderstorms and the Mid North Coast impacted by bushfires, the report said.

In Queensland wild weather claims jumped by more than 169% from winter this year but the state still experienced its quietest spring for claims.

WA experienced the worst spring for wild weather claims since spring 2019, and the state had the highest percentage of home claims due to wild weather of any other state or territory during the season – with 45% of all home claims due to severe weather.