Weather & Science
Why Trump’s Plan to Stop Tallying Weather Losses Matters to the Insurance Industry
NOAA’s billion-dollar disaster list provides a crucial metric for tracking rising damages tied to climate change and development.
Homes destroyed by the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California.
Photographer: Kyle Grillot/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Extreme weather is an increasingly expensive problem in the US. Last year, fires, droughts and storms caused more than $182 billion in damages — but going forward, the federal government won’t be keeping track.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, announced Thursday it will “retire” its popular database of climate and weather disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage, a move that follows the Trump administration’s efforts to scrub environmental data across the federal government.