Billion Dollar U.S. Weather Disasters Since 1980

Updated July 12, 2021 | Infoplease Staff
Source:  NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters (2021).
 

The United States is a big country with a lot of diverse ecosystems. All that land is subject to an array of natural disasters. The worst by a wide margin are hurricanes, which single-handedly account for nearly half of all damages and deaths due to disasters. Here are the stats gathered by NOAA since 1980 by disaster type:
DISASTER
TYPE		 EVENTS EVENTS/​YEAR PERCENT
FREQUENCY		 TOTAL COSTS PERCENT OF
TOTAL COSTS		 COST/​EVENT COST/​YEAR DEATHS DEATHS/​YEAR
Drought 27 0.7 9.9% $252.7BCI 14.1% $9.4B $6.2B 3,865† 94†
Flooding 33 0.8 12.1% $150.4BCI 8.4% $4.6B $3.7B 617 15
Freeze 9 0.2 3.3% $30.6BCI 1.7% $3.4B $0.7B 162 4
Severe Storm 125 3.0 45.8% $268.4BCI 15.0% $2.1B $6.5B 1,757 43
Tropical Cyclone 45 1.1 16.5% $954.4BCI 53.3% $21.2B $23.3B 6,507 159
Wildfire 17 0.4 6.2% $85.4BCI 4.8% $5.0B $2.1B 347 8
Winter Storm 17 0.4 6.2% $49.6BCI 2.8% $2.9B $1.2B 1,048 26
All Disasters 273 6.7 100.0 $1,791.5BCI 100.0% $6.6B $43.7B 14,303 349

The U.S. has sustained 273 weather-related disasters since 1980 in which overall damages and costs reached or exceeded $1 billion at the time of the event, and with cumulative costs topping $1 trillion. 16 occurred during 2011 alone—the most for any year on record, with total costs of $52 billion. Each of the past four years has had 12 or more, and 2020 is currently on pace to meet the record set in 2011. All in all, the rate of billion dollar disasters nearly doubled from the 2000s to the 2010s, adjusting for inflation.
TIME PERIOD BILLION-DOLLAR
DISASTERS		 EVENTS/YEAR COST PERCENT OF
TOTAL COST		 COST/YEAR DEATHS DEATHS/YEAR
1980s (1980-1989) 29 2.9 $177.2B 9.9% $17.7B 2,870 287
1990s (1990-1999) 53 5.3 $272.3B 15.2% $27.2B 3,045 305
2000s (2000-2009) 62 6.2 $517.1B 28.9% $51.7B 3,091 309
2010s (2010-2019) 119 11.9 $807.3B 45.1% $80.7B 5,217 522
Last 5 Years (2015-2019) 69 13.8 $535.6B 29.9% $107.1B 3,862 772
Last 3 Years (2017-2019) 44 14.7 $460.4B 25.7% $153.5B 3,569 1,190
1980-2020* 273 6.7 $1,791.5B 100.0% $43.7B 14,303 349
Weather
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