Billion-Dollar Storms - The 20 Most Expensive Weather Events Since 2020

"To identify the 20 five-billion-dollar weather disasters since 2020, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Centers for Environmental Information report, Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters (2024). The 20 events are listed in order of the estimated cost of the damages, adjusted for inflation. Two of the events are winter storms, three are wildfires, four are droughts, five are severe storms, and six are tropical cyclones."

"Why This Matters According to scientific studies, extreme weather events, including heat waves, large storms, flooding, drought, and others, are likely to become more frequent or more intense as a result of climate change - human-induced rise in the global average temperature. With the U.S. being one of the wealthier countries, damages from extreme weather events are also more expensive (as opposed to less populated or less developed areas)."

"2020 was a historically active Atlantic hurricane season, and Zeta was the fifth to make landfall in Louisiana that season. Zeta made landfall on Oct. 28 at Cocodrie as a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. As it went inland, the storm maintained some strength, and its wind affected parts of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, northern Georgia, and the Carolinas."

Since 2020, twenty distinct U.S. weather and climate events produced damages of at least $5 billion each, adjusted for inflation. The events include six tropical cyclones, five severe storms, four droughts, three wildfires, and two winter storms. Scientific evidence links increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather—heat waves, large storms, flooding, and drought—to human-driven global temperature rise. Wealthier regions such as the United States tend to incur larger absolute economic damages from such disasters. Notable events include Hurricane Zeta, widespread hail and tornado outbreaks, and prolonged Western and Central drought and heat waves.

Read at 24/7 Wall St.