Insurers will have to pay claims of around $135 billion for 2017.

This is the worst ever following a spate of hurricanes, earthquakes and fires in North America, according to a report published on Thursday.

German reinsurer, Munich Re, in its annual natural catastrophe review, also said last year’s total losses, including those not insured, were $330 billion, the second-worst in history after 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami wreaked havoc in Japan.

Although individual events could not be linked directly to climate change, global warming is playing a role, Munich Re said.

“We have a new normal,” said Ernst Rauch, head of Munich Re’s Corporate Climate Centre, which monitors climate change risks.

“2017 was not an outlier,” he said, noting insured losses have surpassed $100 billion multiple times since 2005. “We must have on our radar the trend of new magnitudes.”

Last year’s hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in the United States and Caribbean, wildfires in California and earthquakes in Mexico destroyed homes, infrastructure and numerous lives.

It expected more frequent extreme events in future.

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