America has already set a record for “billion-dollar” disasters in a given year – even with three months to go and the peak of hurricane season still to come.
According to NOAA, which has tracked billions of dollars worth of weather disasters in the U.S. since 1980 and adjusts costs for inflation, this year’s storms have already cost more than $57.6 billion and claimed at least 253 lives.
Disasters include the Maui wildfires, Hurricane Idalia in Florida and flooding in the Northeast.
There have been 23 billion dollar storms this year, surpassing the previous record of 22 in 2020. report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
NOAA climatologist Adam Smith, who tracks billions of dollars’ worth of weather conditions, said Monday that he “doesn’t expect things to slow down anytime soon.”
“We see the fingerprints of climate change all over our country,” he said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been tracking the number of billion-dollar weather disasters in the U.S. since 1980. So far in 2023, there have been 23 billion-dollar weather events.
A circle of flames engulfs Lahania, Hawaii. A devastating wildfire on August 8 destroyed the resort town, claiming approximately 3,000 structures and at least 115 lives
California saw record numbers of flooding this year as about a dozen atmospheric rivers hit the previously dry state
Cars are stranded in water in Canton, Michigan, after storms left parts of Detroit flooded in August
The organization listed an Aug. 11 hailstorm in Minnesota and severe storms in early August and mid-July in the Midwest and parts of the South among the 23 costly weather events.
The organization has not yet taken into account the damage that has been caused Tropical Storm Hilarywhich was disappointing California along the coast, as well as parts of it Nevada and Washington.
Droughts in the South and Midwest also have yet to be added to the count as costs continue to be added up.
Each of the weather events mentioned cost at least $1 billion in damage.
Smith said the shockingly high number of costly weather events is due to both an increase in disasters and more areas being built in risk-prone locations.
“Exposure plus vulnerability plus climate change means more of these disasters become multi-billion dollar disasters,” Smith said.
“This year, much of the action took place in the center states, northern, central, southern and southeastern states.”
He added that he thought the 2020 record would stand for many years because the $22 billion disasters that year far surpassed the previous record of 16.
However, after this year’s partial results, he no longer believes new records will last for long.
Weather experts say the country needs to be better at adapting to weather events as there are only more of them every year.
“The climate has already changed and neither the built environment nor response systems are keeping pace with the change,” said Craig Fugate, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In an aerial view, mud surrounds homes damaged by a flash flood caused by a monsoon thunderstorm that quickly dropped four inches of rain in a region still recovering from Tropical Storm Hilary on September 2 in Thermal, California
Pickup trucks and debris lie strewn in a canal in Horseshoe Beach, Florida, following the passage of Hurricane Idalia, Wednesday, August 30
Tallahassee residents fill sandbags as they prepare for the worst as Hurricane Idalia heads toward Florida on August 29
Young men help move rubble in Kent County, Michigan, in August after at least four tornadoes touched down in Michigan, driven by gusts of wind, killing several people
A Target shopping cart sits abandoned in the road next to a fallen tree near the shuttered department store after freezing rain swept through Central Texas in February
A family assesses the damage to their home after a winter tornado in Houston
A car sits upside down in a Kroger parking lot after a severe storm blew through Little Rock, Arkansas on March 31
Wharves along Soquel Creek in Capitola Village are inundated by a storm surge on January 5 in Capitola, California
Climate scientist Katharine Jacobs of the University of Arizona said that “adding more energy to the atmosphere and oceans will increase the intensity and frequency of extreme events.”
“Many of this year’s events are very unusual and in some cases unprecedented.”
Climate scientist Chris Field of Stanford University called the rise of billions of dollars worth of disasters “deeply disturbing.”
“But there are things we can do to reverse the trend,” he added. “If we want to reduce damage from severe weather, we must accelerate progress on halting climate change and building resilience.”