Connecticut's Climate Risk Map: What Your Property's Score Does and Does Not Tell You

A No-Cost Tool, and Connecticut Was First

In late 2025, the Connecticut Insurance Department launched a public climate risk mapping tool available to residents at no cost, built in partnership with First Street, making Connecticut the first state in the country to offer this kind of address-level risk assessment to every resident. Enter any Connecticut address and the tool returns property-specific scores across five categories: flood, fire, wind, air quality, and extreme heat, each rated on a scale reflecting past events in the area and modeled likelihood of future extreme weather.

It is a genuinely useful starting point for understanding a property's exposure, and it is worth using — with one caveat that matters specifically for the flood score, and that most coverage of the tool does not mention.

What the Five Scores Actually Measure

• Flood risk — modeled flood probability and severity for the specific parcel, distinct from and generally more granular than a FEMA flood zone designation.
• Fire risk — wildfire exposure modeling, historically a smaller factor in Connecticut than in western states but increasingly tracked as conditions shift.
• Wind risk — exposure to damaging wind events, relevant statewide and particularly along the coast.
• Air quality — air quality risk modeling tied to regional and local conditions.
• Extreme heat — projected exposure to extreme heat days over time.

Each score is a model output, not a measurement of what has definitely happened or will definitely happen to your specific property. That distinction matters most for the category most people check this tool for in the first place: flood.

The Caveat Worth Knowing Before You Trust the Flood Number

An analysis published in the Journal of Catastrophe Risk and Resilience compared First Street's flood loss estimates against historical claims data and other catastrophe models used in the flood insurance industry, including models from Verisk and KatRisk. The finding: First Street's modeled flood losses ran meaningfully higher than what historical claims data actually showed — the study found First Street estimated roughly 1.38 times more properties flooded than National Flood Insurance Program data reflected, with the other models studied tracking closer to the historical record. Possible explanations researchers raised include overestimated flood depth, inflated replacement cost assumptions in the model, or overly aggressive depth-damage assumptions — likely some combination.

This does not mean the tool is useless, or that Connecticut should not have built it. It means a "high" flood score from this specific tool is a real signal worth taking seriously, but not a substitute for your property's actual FEMA flood zone determination, an elevation certificate, or a conversation about what coverage your situation actually needs. Treat the score as a prompt to ask better questions, not as a final verdict on your risk or your insurance requirements.

How to Actually Use This Tool

• Use it as a starting point, not a final answer — especially for the flood category, where an independent comparison found the model runs high relative to historical claims.
• Cross-check flood risk against your actual FEMA flood zone — see our guide to Connecticut flood zones and NFIP coverage for how that determination works and what it actually requires.
• If your property scores high in any category, treat it as a reason to have a specific coverage conversation, not a reason to assume you already understand your exposure.
• Remember the tool covers five categories, not just flood — a property with a low flood score but a high wind or extreme heat score still has real exposure worth reviewing.

If your address returns a high-risk score in any category, that is worth a real conversation about coverage, not just a data point to note and move past. Review your Connecticut homeowners insurance and flood insurance options, or explore our guide to the Connecticut hurricane deductible if wind is your property's higher-scoring category. Contact New England Insurance to talk through what your specific score should actually mean for your coverage.