Climatologist: Trends In Weather-Related Damage Costs For The USA

The lie of increasing costs of natural disasters…

Nearly every day I am bombarded by claims that natural disasters are costing more and more and no amount of economic loss, by rapidly transitioning our economy to green energy, would ever come close to the costs of future natural disasters due to AGW. [emphasis, links added]

For example, yesterday The Washington Post published the article below, quoting a ‘government scientist’ that 2023 has set a record in terms of costly disasters.

Since we all know that one anomalous year doesn’t make a trend, let’s take a look at the costs of certain weather events in the USA over the last decade as reported by the National Weather Service.

Damage costs of weather events in the USA from 2012-2022 (in 2022 $)…

The National Weather Service (NWS) is the agency within the U.S. government responsible for providing weather forecasts, warnings, and other pertinent weather-related information to protect lives and property and enhance the national economy.

Established in 1870, the NWS has evolved over time. It’s currently a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which falls under the Department of Commerce.

The NWS’s mission is to provide weather, water, and climate data, forecasts, and warnings for the protection of life and property and the enhancement of the national economy.

Each year the NWS provides detailed event summaries for significant weather events, which include estimates of damages.

I have compiled this data into this file, feel free to use it and give me credit. All summaries can be found at: https://www.weather.gov/

Let’s take a look at the damage costs associated with certain weather events in the USA from 2012-2022.

1. Lightning damage costs:

Despite the most cited climate paper in 2014, which predicted significant increases in lightning strikes, there has been a dramatic decline in damage costs associated with lightning.

2. Tornado damage costs:

Although there have been some anomalous years, such as 2019 and 2020, the overall long-term trend in tornado damage costs is decreasing.

3. Thunderstorm wind damage costs:

Straight-line winds are thunderstorm winds that have no rotation, i.e., not a tornado, and also show a significant decline in damage costs since 2012.

4. Hail damage costs:

Hail has shown one of the largest declines in the last decade in terms of damage costs.

5. River flood damage costs:

Although a large anomalous year exists in 2016, there has been no statistically significant trend in river flood damage since 2012.

6. Extreme heat damage costs:

There is no increasing trend of costs associated with extreme heat, with most years having no damage costs reported.

7. Drought damage costs:

There has been a significant decline in damage costs associated with drought since 2012.

8. Tropical cyclone/hurricane damage costs:

It appears that damage costs associated with tropical cyclones/hurricanes have increased significantly. However, this is likely a result of the fact that the 2012-2015 time period, the first four years of this analysis, was a remarkably quiet hurricane season in the Atlantic.

When zooming out it becomes clear that there has also been no long-term trend in costs associated with hurricanes or tropical cyclones in the USA.

9. Overall damage costs associated with weather events:

There has been no statistically significant trend in the costs of weather events since 2012 in the USA.

In summary, although federal agencies, whose funding relies on the irrational fears of climate change, insist that the costs of weather events are increasing related to AGW, there has been no increase in the costs associated with lightning, tornados, thunderstorm wind, hail, river flood, extreme heat, drought, and hurricanes since 2012 as reported by the National Weather Service.

In fact, most have significantly decreased. There is no climate crisis in the USA.

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