Billion dollar weather disasters are on the rise

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Billion-dollar weather disasters are nothing new, but the rate at which they occur is alarming.

So far in 2024, there have been 24 confirmed weather disasters (events) with losses exceeding $1 billion each to affect the US, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

NCEI is the nation’s scorekeeper, if you will, when it comes to addressing severe weather and climate events from a historical perspective. NCEI is also responsible for tracking and assessing climate events that have a large economic and social impact.

So far this year, there have been 17 severe storm events, 4 tropical cyclone events, 1 wildfire event, and 2 winter storm events, all of which cost $1 billion or more.

There have been at least $24 billion worth of weather disasters in 2024 so far.(NCEI)

In Tennessee, we’ve been hit by a couple of those billion-dollar disasters. The winter storm that brought more than 7 inches of snow to much of the state in January, along with a week of subfreezing temperatures, cost an estimated $1.9 billion and caused at least 41 deaths in several states.

We also had devastating impacts from Hurricane Helene in East Tennessee. Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region but moved inland, wreaking havoc across much of the Southeast. Eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina were particularly hard hit.

N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper said an early estimate of the cost of damage from Helene was about $53 billion.

The annual average of billion dollar weather disasters for the most recent 5 years (2019-2023) is 20.4. We’ve had 24 so far this year, and that number could continue to grow. This is not the kind of record you want to break.