Last year was the fourth-costliest and eighth-deadliest year on record for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the United States.
Only 2023 had more of these costly extreme weather events.
What’s happening?
Two years ago, the U.S. set a record for weather and climate disasters, with 28 extreme events causing at least $1 billion in damage. Last year came close.
A report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information updated the agency’s billion-dollar disaster analysis for 2024.
Hurricane Helene was among the several weather and climate-related disasters that “caused the most damaging impacts and heavily impacted many communities,” according to the report.
The Category 4 hurricane was the most intense hurricane to strike Florida’s Big Bend region, packing 140 miles per hour sustained winds when it made landfall near Perry, Florida.
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The storm went on to cause catastrophic flooding in the southern Appalachians, with western North Carolina one of the hardest-hit regions.
Helene killed 219 people and incurred nearly $80 billion in damages, making it by far the deadliest and costliest billion-dollar disaster of 2024.
Helene was one of five tropical cyclones to make the NCEI’s list of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. There were a total of 27 disasters that made the list, which also included six tornado outbreaks and 11 severe weather/hail events.
“These disasters caused at least 568 direct or indirect fatalities, which is the eighth-highest for these billion-dollar disasters over the last 45 years (1980-2024),” noted the NCEI’s updated analysis. “The cost was approximately $182.7 billion.”
Why is the rising number of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters concerning?
NOAA has been tracking costly extreme weather events since 1980. Including last year’s 27 disasters, the U.S. has experienced 403 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters during the 45-year span. Together, the events have caused more than $2.915 trillion in damage.
The first half of 2025 picked up where 2024 left off, with 14 separate billion-dollar disasters reported during the first six months of this year, totaling $101.4 billion in cumulative costs.
This year’s first billion-dollar disaster was also its costliest, as January’s Los Angeles wildfires became the most expensive wildfire event on record, leading to the indirect deaths of 400 people and causing over $61 billion in damage, according to The Guardian.
The dramatic increase in billion-dollar disasters illustrates how our overheating planet is supercharging costly extreme weather events.
“The average number of billion-dollar disasters per year has grown from about three events annually during the 1980s to 19 events annually during the last 10 years,” observed researchers with non-profit Climate Central.
“Average annual inflation-adjusted costs more than quadrupled from the 1980s ($22.6 billion per year) to the 2010s ($102.0 billion per year).”
What’s being done about the growing number of costly disasters?
Cooling off our warming world is critical to curbing the costs of extreme weather events.
Installing solar panels, replacing old HVAC systems with a heat pump, and upgrading to a tankless water heater can all make a tangible difference in reducing both energy costs and planet-warming pollution.
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