The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced it will cease updates to its critical database of weather and climate disasters after 2024, a move seen as contrary to the needs of climate science. For over 50 years, this database has monitored severe weather impacts, crucial for understanding economic tolls amid climate change. Experts warn that this decision could lead to substantial gaps in data necessary for assessing increasing disaster costs. Since 1980, the database recorded over $2.915 trillion in damages from hundreds of disasters, underscoring its importance for scientific research.
The NOAA database is the gold standard we use to evaluate the costs of extreme weather... And it's a major loss, since it comes at a time when we need to better understand how much climate change is increasing disaster losses.
Without [the database], replicating or extending damage trend analyses, especially at regional scales or across hazard types, is nearly impossible without significant funding or institutional access to commercial data.
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