Last Year Was One Big Disaster. In The Weather Department, Too

Hurricane Ida was the costliest of 20 weather and climate
disasters the United States suffered, each of which cost
at least $1 billion. Ida cost $75 billion.
Photo by Michael DeMocker 

Anyone who reads this here blog thingy knows there were lots of huge weather and climate disasters last year. Now we have the receipts. 

Last year, there were 20 United States weather/climate disasters. Only the previous year - 2020 - had more billion dollar disasters. Also, last year's billion plus dollar calamities killed 688 people, the most in a single year since 2011, according to NOAA's Centers for Environmental Information.

The disasters included eight episodes of severe thunderstorms, four tropical cyclones, three tornado outbreaks, two big floods, a drought/heat wave and a wildfire outbreak.   

This was the seventh year in a row in which the United States had ten or more weather disasters, each costing $1 billion or more. 

Hurricane Ida was the costliest natural disaster of the year, with losses of $75 billion.  It is among the top five most expensive hurricanes on record.

The huge Arctic blast and winter storm that affected much of the nation's middle, especially Texas, was the nation's most expensive winter storm on record, with losses of $24 billion.  This is more than double the previous winter storm record holder, which was the Superstorm of March, 1993, in inflation adjusted dollars. 

The global insurer Munich RE said natural disasters (though many of them were made worse by climate change) caused $280 billion in losses, of which just $120 billion was insured. Last year was roughly tied with 2005 and 2011 as the second worst year in insured losses (inflation adjusted) due to these disasters.  The year 2017 was the worst in insured losses, amounting to $146 billion, mostly caused by a string of hurricanes.  

It wasn't just the United States. Summer floods in and near
Germany cost an estimated $54 billion.

In Europe, massive flash flooding in 2021 caused $54 billion in losses. However, the bulk of the 2021 disasters were in the United States. 

Munich Re had this to say regarding the relationship between the 2021 disasters and climate change:

"The 2021 disaster statistics are striking because some of the extreme weather events are of the kind that are likely to become more frequent or more severe as a result of climate change. Among those are severe storms in the USA, including the winter half-year, or heavy rain followed by floods in Europe.  

For hurricanes, scientists anticipate that the proportion of severe storms and of storms with extreme rainfall will increase because of climate change. Even though events cannot automatically be attributed to climate change, analysis of the changes over decades provides plausible indications of a connection with the warming of the atmosphere and the oceans. Adapting to increasing risks due to climate change will be a challenge."

If you want a translation of the above away from PR speak from an insurer's perspective, it's this: "We're screwed."

The year 2022 is barely two weeks old, and I certainly don't think there's been any billion dollar disasters yet. But costs are already mounting, and will continue to mount this month with some slightly smaller scale disasters.

Those include winters storms and flooding last week in Washington State. Another winter storm caused many millions in damage in the Mid-Atlantic States at the start of the year. On top of that, a large new winter storm is forecast to cause havoc and damage over the next several days from across the south from Louisiana to Georgia, then on up the East Coast all the way to New England.