The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its first tally of billion-dollar disasters this year, and the escalating trend for these expensive events continues.
So far, there have been nine disasters with at least $1 billion in damage in the U.S. this year including everything from tornadoes and hail to drought and a recent June 13 derecho. Overall, these events resulted in the deaths of eight people.
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The most expensive weather event this year was an estimated $2.2 billion April thunderstorm outbreak that caused hundreds of reports of damaging winds and dozens of tornadoes across the deep south from Texas to Tennessee and Kentucky.
So far Florida has not accrued weather costs like the other southern states but August through the following two months are the historical time when hurricanes become the most destructive and costly events in the Sunshine State.
For example, in 2016-2018, Florida was impacted by three of six separate billion-dollar hurricanes (i.e., Matthew, Harvey, Irma, Maria, Florence, and Michael). In total, the national cost was an inflation-adjusted loss total of $384.3 billion and 3,318 fatalities.
As a comparison, the U.S. also experienced a series of active hurricane seasons from 2003-2005 where nine separate billion-dollar hurricanes (e.g., Charley, Ivan, Katrina, Rita, Wilma, etc.) made landfall, with an inflation-adjusted loss total of $336.6 billion and 2,225 fatalities.
Every state in the country has been impacted by at least one billion-dollar disaster since 1980. The Central, South, and Southeast regions typically experience a higher frequency of billion-dollar disasters than other regions.
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters (2022).
In 2021, the U.S. experienced 20 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, putting 2021 in second place for the most disasters in a calendar year, behind the record 22 separate billion-dollar events in 2020. A drought plus devastating wildfire and hurricane seasons played a primary role in the near-record cost.
Climate change is also playing a role in the increasing frequency of some types of extreme weather that lead to billion-dollar disasters — most notably the rise in vulnerability to drought, lengthening wildfire seasons in the Western states, and the potential for extremely heavy rainfall becoming more common in the eastern states.