Hurricane Ian is projected to be the most recent example of a growing trend of billion dollar climate events to hit the United States. According to CoreLogic, a research company who tracks property data, the cost of damage from Hurricane Ian is expected to be between $28-$48 billion, which would make it one of the most expensive hurricanes in Florida’s history.
Major climate events have an immense ecological and human impact. Increasingly, they also have a massive price tag. Since 1980, there have been 332 major weather events that have each resulted in more than $1 billion in damages, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Cumulatively, they have resulted in more than $2.2 trillion in costs.
These storms fall into seven categories, and include weather events ranging from drought and freezing to wildfires and storms. The costs come from both public and private sources and the NCEI says that they “help capture the total, direct costs (both insured and uninsured) of the weather and climate events,” which include physical damage to buildings, business interruptions, public damages like roads and bridges, and agricultural losses.
The costs are adjusted by the Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation. Some historical events which initially cost less than $1 billion in real dollars will eclipse that mark as inflation increases. As the value of those events surpasses $1 billion with the CPI adjustment, they are added to the list.
The data shows that these costly climate events are becoming far more frequent. In 1980, there were three events that eclipsed $1 billion in damages. In 2021, there were 21. From 1980-1989, there were 31 events, an average of 3.1 events per year. In the last 5 complete years of data (2017-2021), there have been 89 such events, an average of 17.8 per year.
Predictably, the total cost per year from climate events has increased. In the decade from 2011-2021, there were five years where these major climate events caused more than $100 billion in damage. The only other year where that occurred was 2005, when Hurricane Katrina accounted for $186.3 billion in damages. Hurricane Katrina was more expensive than all but one individual year.
Hurricanes typically incur the highest cost. Of the ten most expensive climate events since 1980, eight were hurricanes, or “tropical cyclones” as classified by the NCEI.
The cumulative cost is staggering. These 332 major weather events have caused more than $2 trillion in costs, with tropical cyclones alone contributing more than $1 trillion cumulatively. The chart below shows the cumulative cost of major weather events since 1980. In recent years, the total cost has soared.
Thumbnail image courtesy of CityofStPete