Billion-dollar weather disasters are on the rise

NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) – Billion-dollar weather disasters are nothing new, but the speed at which they are happening is alarming.

According to the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), there were 24 confirmed weather disasters (events) in the United States in 2024 with damages exceeding $1 billion each.

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 monitoring and assessing climate events that have large economic and social impacts.

This year there have been 17 severe storms, 4 tropical cyclones, 1 wildfire and 2 winter storms costing $1 billion or more.

There were at least 24 weather disasters in 2024, costing $24 billion.(NCER)

In Tennessee, we have suffered several of these billion-dollar disasters. The winter storm, which brought more than 7 inches of snow to much of the state in January and a week of frigid temperatures, has an estimated cost of $1.9 billion and has caused at least 41 deaths in multiple states.

We also experienced the devastating effects of Hurricane Helen in East Tennessee. Helen made landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida, but moved inland, wreaking havoc across much of the Southeast. East Tennessee and Western North Carolina were particularly hard hit.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said preliminary estimates put the cost of damage from Helen at about $53 billion.

The average annual number of billion-dollar weather disasters over the past 5 years (2019-2023) is 20.4. This year there are already 24, and this number may continue to grow. This is not a record you want to break.