Story at a glance
- The U.S. last year sustained 20 weather and climate disasters that cost more than $1 billion each, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, making it the third costliest year on record.
- 2021 marks the seventh consecutive year in which 10 or more billion-dollar weather and climate disasters have hit the U.S.
- 2021 was also the fourth warmest year on record, with an average contiguous U.S. temperature of 54.5 degrees Fahrenheit — 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average.
The U.S. in 2021 sustained 20 weather and climate disasters that cost more than $1 billion each, according to a new government report, in one of the most catastrophic and costliest years on record. Extreme weather and climate events were also linked to the deaths of 688 people last year.
In total, damages from drought, flooding, severe storms and wildfires climbed to about $145 billion in 2021, according to an annual report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), making it the third costliest year on record, behind 2017 and 2005.
Although 2021 falls slightly short of the record $22 billion-dollar events seen in 2020, it still marks the seventh consecutive year in which 10 or more billion-dollar weather and climate disasters have hit the U.S., according to NOAA. Hurricane Ida was the costliest event of the year, with damages totaling $75 billion. It ranks among the top five most costly hurricanes in data going back to 1980.
2021 was also the fourth warmest year on record, with an average contiguous U.S. temperature of 54.5 degrees Fahrenheit — 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average, according to NOAA. While annual precipitation was also above average, between 43 percent and 56 percent of the country was affected by drought in 2021.
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Wildfires were especially active across the west last year, and consumed more than 7.1 million acres of land — 96 percent of the 10-year average, according to NOAA.
Weather and climate disasters in 2021 also caused more than twice the number of deaths than 2020 and were the highest in a decade.
The NOAA report comes as President Biden works to revive his Build Back Better bill, which includes the nation’s largest ever climate investment. Without it, experts have said there is little chance the U.S. will meet its ambitious goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of the decade.
“The data highlights a worsening and undeniable trend that underscores the reality of how the climate crisis is already affecting every region of the country,” Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told The Guardian. “We simply cannot adapt to runaway climate change … Fossil fuel companies and their allies shouldn’t be allowed to stand in the way of desperately needed climate action.”
According to NOAA, the U.S. has sustained 310 weather and climate disasters since 1980 where damages have exceeded $1 billion. Combined, the cost of these extreme events exceeds $2 trillion.
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