Earlier this year, the Trump administration discontinued the federal database responsible for tracking the financial impact of extreme weather events and compiling the annual list of billion-dollar disasters, which include hurricanes, wildfires, and other significant catastrophes.
Despite this halt, the financial toll of these devastating events is climbing at an unprecedented rate, a stark reality highlighted by a newly revitalized version of the database, unveiled this Wednesday by the non-profit organization Climate Central.
Their findings reveal that in just the first six months of this year, natural disasters across the United States have already inflicted over $100 billion in damages, marking the most costly start to any year in recorded history. Researchers identified fourteen separate disasters, each exceeding $1 billion in damages, within this initial half-year period.
This alarming calculation emerges as President Trump has voiced intentions to transfer the financial responsibility for disaster relief and recovery from the federal government to individual states. Evidence suggests this shift is already underway, with the administration establishing a panel tasked with proposing reforms to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) by November’s end.
A significant portion of this year’s extreme weather costs—over half—can be attributed to the devastating wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles in January. These fires alone nearly doubled the inflation-adjusted record for fire damage, as reported by Adam Smith, Climate Central’s senior climate impacts scientist.
Adam Smith, who managed the federal database for 15 years as a researcher for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), departed the agency in May. His departure came soon after the Trump administration announced its decision to cease reporting disaster damage costs, ending a government effort that had maintained this critical database since the 1990s, with records dating back to 1980.
Now at Climate Central, Smith is committed to continuing this essential work, employing the identical methodology and with aspirations to collect even more granular disaster-related data in the future.
“This data set was simply too important to stop being updated,” Smith emphasized, underscoring its significance.
Kim Doster, a NOAA spokeswoman, stated that the agency “appreciates” the database finding “a funding mechanism other than the taxpayer dime,” adding that NOAA is prioritizing “sound, unbiased research over projects based in uncertainty and speculation.”
This critical information serves as a vital resource for the insurance industry, policymakers, and researchers alike, enabling them to comprehend and prepare for a future where storms, floods, fires, and other catastrophic hazards are increasingly frequent, intense, and destructive. Data reveals a dramatic increase in billion-dollar disasters, escalating from an average of three per year in the 1980s to 19 annually over the past decade.
This trend isn’t solely a result of changing weather patterns. A contributing factor is the growing population and business development in flood- and wildfire-prone regions, which inherently increases the amount of property susceptible to damage.
While these demographic and development factors undeniably add complexity to the analysis, Smith pointed to a unifying explanation for the escalating disaster damage: “The rise in damage relates to human activities.”
Climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, is directly linked to the intensification and increased frequency of certain extreme weather events. Warmer oceans contribute to rapidly strengthening hurricanes, while warmer air holds more moisture, leading to heavier, faster rainfall and severe flooding. Furthermore, rising temperatures and prolonged droughts desiccate vegetation, providing abundant fuel for destructive wildfires.
Andrew Rumbach, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute specializing in climate change’s community impacts, asserted that the database powerfully signals both evolving weather extremes and “decision-making that is costing us a lot of money.”
Rumbach highlighted the “billion-dollar disaster list” as “one of the most effective bridges to the public, communicating the increasing costs of disasters.” He concluded, “It’s a really powerful tool for communicating to the public this trend we see.”
According to the Climate Central report, the Los Angeles wildfires caused over $60 billion in damage, a figure almost double the cost of the devastating fires that swept through Northern California, including the town of Paradise, in 2018.
The remaining nationwide damage, accumulating to $101.4 billion between January and June, was primarily due to severe storms, which unleashed tornadoes, hail, and floods across vast swathes of the country, as detailed by the database. Notably, a single tornado outbreak spanning the central and southern U.S. from March 14 to 16 alone inflicted $10.6 billion in damages.
Smith confirmed that Climate Central intends to update the database with all 2025 data in January. Researchers are currently assessing the catastrophic July 4 floods in central Texas, which tragically claimed at least 136 lives, as a potential addition to the list.
Coincidentally, this Atlantic hurricane season has been remarkably subdued. Should the United States navigate through November without a tropical storm or hurricane making landfall, it would offer a welcome, albeit temporary, respite from what has been an otherwise brutal period: Smith noted that four of the five most financially devastating disaster seasons have occurred since 2017.
The fifth most costly year? That was 2005, a year etched in history by the immense destruction wrought by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.