NOAA's August climate report confirms eight recent billion dollar weather disasters in the US - KCRA Sacramento

Latest climate report confirms 8 recent billion-dollar weather disasters in US

NOAA's August climate report confirms eight recent billion dollar weather disasters in the US

Impacts from Idalia as well as the wildfires in Maui are each estimated to have caused more than one billion dollars in damage.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's most recent monthly climate analysis confirms eight recent weather-related events have each caused more than $1 billion in damage in the U.S.

Two of those events include Hurricane Idalia in the Southeast and the devastating wildfires in Maui.

That brings the total number of U.S. billion-dollar disasters for this year to 23.

According to NOAA climate analyst Adam Smith, the frequency of these expensive disasters is increasing and for a number of reasons.

“One is increased exposure. More people and assets in harm’s way," Smith said, specifically mentioning increased development in the "wildland urban interface." Communities in the WUI can be at greater risk for wildfires.

The way communities are built is a factor, too. Smith explained how that includes rebuilding post-disaster.

"We don’t need to continue to rebuild the same way in the same places after a town has been wiped out, for instance," Smith said. "We have to rethink that and learn from these disasters.”

Each billion-dollar disaster this year was connected to weather in some way, but Smith said that some of those events were likely made worse by climate change.

Scientific studies have repeatedly shown that human greenhouse gas emissions are leading to rising global average temperatures, more severe and costly droughts, as well as more intense flooding events.

Smith noted that more flooding events occurred on the East Coast during the 2010s than the 80s, 90s and 00s combined.

NOAA is currently analyzing costs from Hurricane Hilary's impacts in Southern California.

Summer temperature records

NOAA's report also highlighted notable temperature and precipitation trends for August and meteorological summer, which runs from June 1 through Aug. 31.

Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida each recorded their highest average August temperature in the last 129 years. August 2023 was also Florida's hottest month on record.

For the U.S. as a whole, August was the 9th warmest on record and meteorological summer was the 15th warmest out of the last 129 years.

Parts of California experienced above-average temperatures during the beginning of August, but overall the month was near-normal statewide.