The U.S. experienced its second-highest number of billion-dollar weather and climate-related disasters and the fourth warmest year on record in 2021, according to data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Jan. 10. NOAA attributes the growing number of disasters over the past decades to climate change and a warming planet.
Last year, the U.S. experienced 20 separate billion-dollar weather and climate-related disasters at a total cost of $145 billion and more than 688 lives lost. The number of events was second only to the 22 extreme weather events in 2020 at a cost of $102 billion.