Extreme Weather Events Cost the U.S. $145 Billion in 2021

Regular Earther lector will have intercourse there was no shortage of revelatory weather disasters chevy the U.S. last twelvemonth , frompipe - bursting freeze in Texastoroad warping heat in the Pacific Northwestto anendless parade of wildfiresmixed in for salutary bar . Now , a newreportfrom the National Centers for Environmental Information ( NCEI ) provide some more detail on the economical and human cost associated with the tragical peck that is the changing climate .

The agency chronicled 20 weather event in the report , released Monday , that collectively cost the U.S. economy at least $ 145 billion dollar bill . Each of those climate or weather events individually run to loss of at least $ 1 billion . The report also estimates last twelvemonth ’s utmost weather condition events precede to the deaths of 688 across the U.S. , showing that we ’re not going to be able-bodied to adapt our agency out of the increasingly violent climate .

Tropical storms had by far the largest economic impact in 2021 , causing $ 78.5 billion in equipment casualty . Of that , $ 74 billion along came fromHurricane Ida , with the violent storm go forth a track of end from Louisiana to New York .

Hurricane Ida was responsible for more economic damage than any other weather or climate disaster in 2021.

Hurricane Ida was responsible for more economic damage than any other weather or climate disaster in 2021.Photo: Brandon Bell (Getty Images)

Winter storms come after their tropical opposite number , cause $ 24 billion in terms . knockout storms and wildfires cost the country $ 20.4 billion and $ 10.6 billion respectively . Thedeadliest atmospheric condition eventof 2021 was the drought and series of heat wafture that bubble across the West , vote out 229 over the course of the twelvemonth . ( Though , it should be noted , other analyses have peg the death bell of the Pacific Northwest estrus wave alone asmuch high . Ditto for theTexas cold snap . )

Those figure are made even worse when put in context with premature eld . The 20 weather events costing more than $ 1 billion in 2021 far eclipsed the average of roughly seven similar weather events annually between 1980 and 2021 . Of the 310 weather effect topping $ 1 billion in damage register over the past 41 class , 2021 alone account for over 15 % of them .

In just the past five yr , weather and mood calamity cost the U.S. economy $ 742.1 billion and left some 4,519 hoi polloi utter . The staggering bell shine a few trends . One is an increasingly violent clime where heat waves are more intense , hurricane can do more damage , and wildfires are more voracious due to burn up fossil fuels .

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“ clime modification is also wreak a role in the increasing relative frequency of some types of utmost weather condition that lead to billion - dollar sign disasters , ” the authors noted , “ most notably the rise in exposure to drought , lengthening wildfire seasons in the westerly country , and the potency for highly gravid rainfall becoming more vulgar in the easterly land . ”

The other factor driving the damage reckoning is the great unwashed increasingly living in areas prone to disasters . The universe in coastal county and in areas where the Mrs. Henry Wood meet town have intercourse as thewildland - urban interfacehas ballooned . That compounding has put people and substructure right in the climate bullseye — and all but ensured losses will keep to rocket as climate alteration aggravate .

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