"The first half of 2025 was the costliest on record for major disasters in the US, driven by huge wildfires in Los Angeles and storms that battered much of the rest of the country, according to a climate non-profit that has resurrected work axed by Donald Trump's administration that tracked the biggest disasters. In the first six months of this year, 14 separate weather-related disasters that each caused at least $1bn in damage hit the US, the Climate Central group has calculated."
"The bulk of this toll was caused by the ferocious wildfires that razed parts of Los Angeles in January, a disaster that destroyed around 16,000 buildings and resulted in the indirect deaths of around 400 people. At $61bn in damages, the LA fires are one of the most expensive climate-related disasters on record in the US, and the only top 10 event that is not a hurricane."
In the first half of 2025, the United States experienced 14 separate weather-related disasters each causing at least $1 billion in damage, totaling $101 billion in losses to homes, businesses, highways and infrastructure. The largest share of damages came from Los Angeles wildfires in January that destroyed about 16,000 buildings and caused around 400 indirect deaths, with estimated damages of $61 billion. These fires rank among the most expensive climate-related U.S. disasters and are the only non-hurricane event in the top ten. NOAA retired its 45-year billion-dollar disasters dataset in May; Climate Central has resumed tracking to extend the record and support planning for extreme weather impacts.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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