This Year Has Seen a Record Number of Climate Disasters Costing $1 Billion
Storms, fires, and droughts have already cost the country at least $50 billion—and there are still three months left in 2020.
A shattered storefront after Hurricane Delta struck in Cancun, Mexico, on Oct. 7.
Photographer: Victor Ruiz Garcia/AP PhotoThe U.S. in 2020 has already seen 16 climate-related disasters that caused more than $1 billion in damage each, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That ties the record shared by 2011 and 2017—after only nine months. The annual average for 2015 to 2019 was 13.8 billion-dollar events a year, more than double the average since 1980.
NOAA’s announcement came as Hurricane Delta, the season’s 25th named storm, battered Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Forecasts show the storm heading toward Louisiana coast next, which will require it to pass across the Gulf of Mexico’s warm waters. Higher water temperatures provide fuel to hurricanes, so while Delta lost energy after making landfall in Mexico, it’s predicted to become a major storm again en route to the northern coast. Also this week, an amalgamation of fires that started burning in California in August became the first recorded “gigafire,” covering more than a million of the 4 million-plus acres in the state that have burned so far this year.