![]() ![]() ![]() Missouri and Arkansas Flooding and Central Severe Weather: $1.7 Billion The damage: Severe hail, winds and tornadoes caused damage in 10 states across the midwest. And overflow from the Coyote Creek forced the evacuation of 14,000 residents from San Jose. Damage to the Oroville Dam spillway forced 188,000 residents downstream to evacuate. The damage: Heavy rainfall-and the subsequent high water, fallen trees, avalanches mudslides and sinkholes-caused severe property damage in Northern and Central California from. The damage: Nebraska, Illinois and Iowa saw hail, wind and tornadoes in June, with more than a dozen tornadoes touching down in parts of Iowa. It was one of the largest tornado outbreaks for any winter month, outpacing a previous record set in the 1950s. The damage: Southern states were pummeled by 79 confirmed tornadoes in January, sending strong winds as far west as San Diego. Southern Tornado Outbreaks and Western Storms: $1.1 Billion The Washington Post called it a “massacre” for fruit crops, with South Carolina and Georgia feeling the brunt of the damage, with record temperatures in the 20s. The damage: Though freezes in the south around this time aren’t uncommon, unusually warm temperatures caused crops to bloom weeks early, severely damaging farmers’ bottom lines. “The severe cost of extreme weather that disrupts supply chains, it creates havoc for markets.” Here is a look at all 16 record-setting disasters and why the damage was so expensive. “They’re seeing their bottom line impacted, industry is paying the price,” he said. ![]() He said studies have found that choosing not to act on climate change is becoming more expensive than introducing policies or changes to fight it. Smith said his study is not meant to tease out event attribution, and that for many of last year’s weather events, it will take months for scientists to determine which variables are linked to certain parts of climate change.īut Mann thinks that expensive disasters are catching the attention of big businesses who can’t afford to ignore an issue that could increase their costs in a big way. (Smithsonian Magazine dives into what we can and can’t attribute to climate change here). Many experts agree that although climate change is a factor in the formation and severity of these events, many other factors also contribute to extreme weather events, including urbanization and natural weather patterns. “We see them play out and in real time in the headlines, on our television screens.” “The impacts of climate change now are no longer subtle,” he said. Michael Mann, distinguished professor of atmospheric science and director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center, said there is no doubt the sharp increase in weather disasters is an effect of human-caused climate change. Why was 2017 such a bad year for disasters? Costs in California in particular may increase slightly in the coming weeks as more information emerges. Smith also said that the data could change as recovery relief moves forward in harder hit areas. Smith told the PBS NewsHour over email that because of this omission, the study’s “estimates should be considered conservative with respect to what is truly lost.” What the study doesn’t account for, says study author Adam Smith, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), are health care-related expenses and the costs associated with loss of life. Army corps and the Insurance Services Office. Sources of data include federal and state agencies, the U.S. ![]() The total cost of each disaster includes insured and uninsured losses, including physical damages to buildings and infrastructure, along with factors like costs for businesses and damages to crops. caused more than $306 billion in damage last year, making 2017 the most expensive year for climate disasters on record.Īccording to data released by the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), which tracks the nation’s major weather and climate events, there were 16 “billion dollar” disasters in the United States in 2017, tying the record set in 2011 for most billion dollar disasters in a single year. Three massive hurricanes, severe storms and wildfires across the U.S. ![]()
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