Hailstorms are quietly reshaping home insurance costs for millions of American homeowners, with insurers increasingly shifting financial risk through higher wind and hail deductibles, according to new data from Insurify.

Texas, Massachusetts, and New Jersey carry the highest average wind and hail deductibles in the country, all exceeding $7,700, Insurify found. Texas leads the nation with an average wind and hail deductible of $7,761, representing 2.24% of the state's average dwelling coverage amount. The state accounted for 16.7% of all U.S. hail events between 2023 and 2025 and leads the nation in properties with moderate or greater hail exposure, with nearly 8 million properties representing $3.1 trillion in exposed reconstruction cost value, according to Cotality.

Severe convective storms, which include hail, thunderstorms, and tornadoes, rank among the largest drivers of insurance losses. Hail accounts for an estimated 50% to 80% of all losses from those storms.

To assess where homeowners face the greatest financial burden, Insurify ranked wind and hail deductibles as a percentage of average dwelling coverage by state. Louisiana ranked second at 2.01%, followed by Oklahoma at 1.97%. New Jersey's average deductible of $7,857 was the highest nationally, despite the state's below-average annual premiums of $1,767.

Premiums Also Rising in Hard-Hit States

Nebraska illustrates how a damaging storm season can quickly translate into higher premiums. The state recorded 676 severe hail events in 2023 and 448 in 2024, producing $128 million in combined property damage. Home insurers in Nebraska paid out $1.36 for every $1 collected in premiums, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Average home insurance costs in the state rose 25% in 2025, and Insurify projects an additional 13% increase in 2026. Kansas similarly saw about a 15% premium increase in 2025, with insurers paying more than $612 million on 56,778 storm claims in 2024 alone.

Survey Findings Point to Coverage Gaps

Insurify surveyed 1,000 insured homeowners in counties with historic or recent severe storm risk. Nearly two-thirds, or 65%, reported that severe weather had damaged their roofs. Among those, severe thunderstorms caused damage 50% of the time, and hail 43% of the time.

Of those who experienced roof damage, 31% said repairs cost between $5,001 and $15,000. Notably, 10% said they did not file a claim because their deductible was too high, and 25% said they would reduce their coverage to lower their premiums.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced changes in March that reduce roof coverage requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans from replacement cost value to actual cash value, affecting roughly 30 million mortgages. Replacing a roof costs approximately $30,000 to $50,000, depending on materials, according to the Journal of Light Construction. Insurify's survey found 72% of homeowners would face financial or housing insecurity if insurance did not fully cover a roof replacement.

Colorado, Nevada, Tennessee, Alabama, and Missouri also posted wind and hail deductibles above 1.25% of average dwelling coverage.

Google announced sweeping changes to its Search product at its annual Google I/O conference, introducing AI-powered agents, generative user interfaces, and personalized mini apps in what the company calls the biggest transformation to its search entry point in more than 25 years.

The centerpiece of the overhaul is a redesigned search box that expands to accept longer, conversational queries. The new interface includes an AI-powered query suggestion system that goes beyond traditional autocomplete, helping users build more complex and nuanced searches. Google's AI Overviews feature will also allow follow-up questions through AI Mode, effective immediately.

Starting this summer, users will be able to create and manage "information agents" that run continuously in the background, monitoring the web for changes and delivering synthesized updates. Google's head of Search, Liz Reid, described one use case in a press briefing: a user could configure an agent to track market movements in a specific sector, and the agent would map out a monitoring plan, access relevant data sources, including real-time finance data, and then alert the user when defined conditions are met, along with links to supporting information. The feature builds on the concept behind Google Alerts, the change-detection service Google launched in 2003.

The company is also rolling out what it calls "generative UI," where Search builds custom widgets, dynamic layouts, and interactive visuals in real time in response to user queries. Google says the system was built in partnership with Google DeepMind and runs on Gemini Flash 3.5.

In addition, Google will allow users to build their own stateful, customizable "mini apps" directly within Search using natural-language commands. Google offered examples such as a meal-planning tool that integrates a user's calendar or a personalized fitness app. The underlying platform powering these capabilities is Google Antigravity, the company's agentic development platform.

Google AI Overviews now reaches more than 2.5 billion monthly users. AI Mode, the company's conversational search feature launched last year, has surpassed 1 billion monthly users. For comparison, ChatGPT reported 900 million weekly active users earlier this year.

The new search box is available this week. Generative UI arrives this summer at no charge to all users. The information agents and mini app features will roll out first to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers this summer, with broader availability planned over time.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said at a press briefing ahead of I/O that the company's focus on efficient, lower-cost frontier models is central to expanding access. "Part of the reason we focus on delivering frontier models is because we want to bring it to as many people as possible," Pichai said.

Researchers at Florida Atlantic University have found that in-vehicle sensor data can detect subtle differences in driving behavior between cognitively healthy older adults and those showing early signs of cognitive decline, according to a study published in the journal Sensors.

The study analyzed nearly 4,800 real-world driving trips from 36 older adults. Researchers installed sensors in participants' vehicles and tracked their driving over three years. Participants also underwent neuropsychological testing every three months during that period.

The sensor network, developed by FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science researchers, uses commercially available hardware and software. The compact system includes two units, one for telematics data and one for video, and is designed to be unobtrusive.

Each recorded trip captures measures including distance traveled, trip duration, average and maximum speed, engine performance, throttle patterns, fuel level, and counts of driving events such as hard braking, rapid acceleration, and sharp turns.

Researchers compared trip-level data between cognitively unimpaired drivers and those with pre-mild cognitive impairment or mild cognitive impairment. Drivers with pre-MCI or MCI tended to show less consistent control of the gas pedal, took shorter or more fragmented trips and demonstrated less efficient speed regulation. Cognitively unimpaired drivers, by contrast, drove at higher average speeds, braked more frequently when needed, and maintained steadier use of the accelerator.

Importantly, no single behavior, by itself, distinguished the groups. Instead, the combination of driving behaviors together produced the most accurate results.

"When all the behaviors were analyzed together, the model was highly accurate at distinguishing cognitively unimpaired drivers from those with early impairment," said Ruth Tappen, a professor and eminent scholar in FAU's Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and senior author of the study. "Everyday driving habits, captured passively through in-car sensors, may offer a powerful new way to detect subtle cognitive changes long before they become obvious."

The research comes as the number of older drivers in the United States continues to grow. More than 50 million licensed drivers nationwide are age 65 or older, including roughly 5 million in Florida. The study notes that driving is a complex activity that involves memory, attention, and decision-making, yet most prior research has relied on simulations or self-reports rather than on actual driving behavior.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Aging. Researchers note that the work is ongoing and that early-stage cognitive changes, when detected, may represent a window of opportunity for intervention.