Earlier this year, the Trump administration ceased updates to a vital federal database. This database was crucial for monitoring the financial impact of extreme weather events and compiling an annual list of major disasters—hurricanes, wildfires, and more—each incurring damages of at least $1 billion.
Despite this halt, the financial burden of these catastrophes continues to surge at an unprecedented rate. This alarming conclusion comes from a newly revived version of the database, recently published by the nonprofit organization Climate Central.
Their research reveals that in just the first six months of this year, natural disasters across the United States have inflicted over $100 billion in damages, marking the most costly start to any year ever recorded. In this period, scientists identified fourteen separate events that each exceeded $1 billion in damages.
This staggering total emerges amidst President Trump’s stated desire 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 expected to propose significant operational changes for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) by November’s end.
A significant portion—over half—of this year’s extreme weather costs can be attributed to the devastating wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles in January. According to Adam Smith, a senior climate impacts scientist at Climate Central, these fires nearly doubled the inflation-adjusted record for fire-related damages.
For 15 years, Mr. Smith managed this crucial federal database as a researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He departed the agency in May, shortly after the Trump administration announced its decision to cease reporting disaster damage costs. This database had been continuously maintained by the government since the 1990s, containing data dating back to 1980.
Now at Climate Central, Smith is committed to continuing this vital work. He employs the same rigorous methodology and aims to collect even more granular disaster data in the future.
“This data set was simply too important to stop being updated,” Mr. Smith emphasized.
Kim Doster, a NOAA spokeswoman, noted that the agency “appreciates” the database’s new “funding mechanism other than the taxpayer dime.” She stated that NOAA is now prioritizing “sound, unbiased research over projects based in uncertainty and speculation.”
This comprehensive data is invaluable to the insurance industry, policymakers, and researchers. It helps them understand and prepare for a future where, much like today, storms, floods, fires, and other natural hazards are growing more frequent, intense, and destructive. The data clearly indicates a sharp increase in billion-dollar disasters, rising from an average of three per year in the 1980s to 19 annually over the past decade.
However, this increase isn’t solely due to changes in weather patterns. A contributing factor is the growing number of people and businesses relocating into flood-prone and wildfire-susceptible regions, thereby exposing more property to potential damage.
Mr. Smith acknowledged that while these demographic shifts can complicate the analysis, the overarching explanation for disaster trends remains consistent: “The rise in damage relates to human activities.”
Climate change, driven by humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels, is directly linked to the surge in certain types of extreme weather. Warmer oceans fuel quicker hurricane intensification. Warmer air holds more moisture, leading to more intense rainfall and severe flooding. Furthermore, rising temperatures and prolonged droughts desiccate vegetation, turning landscapes into tinderboxes ripe for wildfires.
Andrew Rumbach, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute specializing in climate change’s community impacts, noted that the database powerfully illustrates both evolving weather extremes and “decision-making that is costing us a lot of money.”
Rumbach asserted that the billion-dollar disaster list “has been one of the most effective bridges to the public, communicating the increasing costs of disasters.” He further added, “It’s a really powerful tool for communicating to the public this trend we see.”
The Climate Central report highlighted that the Los Angeles wildfires alone caused over $60 billion in damage, almost double the cost of the 2018 Northern California fires, which famously devastated the town of Paradise.
The remaining nationwide damage, reaching $101.4 billion between January and June, was primarily due to severe storms, including tornadoes, hail, and widespread flooding. A particularly destructive tornado outbreak across the central and southern U.S. from March 14-16 alone resulted in $10.6 billion in damages.
Climate Central intends to release a comprehensive update of the database in January, incorporating all data from 2025. Researchers are currently assessing the tragic July 4 floods in central Texas, which claimed at least 136 lives, as a potential addition to the list.
Coincidentally, this Atlantic hurricane season has been unusually calm. If no tropical storm or hurricane makes landfall in the U.S. before December, it could offer a brief reprieve from an otherwise alarming trend: four of the five most expensive disaster seasons on record have happened since 2017.
And the fifth? That would be 2005, a year forever marked by the historic devastation of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.