The total is a reflection of "physical damage to homes, businesses and municipal properties," said Adam Smith, an applied climatologist and disaster expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .

Smith is the lead researcher for NOAA's " U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters" report, which catalogs 18 such disasters from 2022. He has reason to believe that the atmospheric river producing storms in California may join this year's list.

"Clearly, when everything is said and done after weeks of atmospheric rivers," Smith said, he "would not be surprised if this was the first billion-dollar event of 2023."

Other major costs could include lost productivity for individuals and businesses due to evacuation, agricultural damage from flooding and damage to boats and piers along the coast, Smith said.

An often-overlooked cost associated with disasters is damage to public infrastructure, he noted. Damage to roads, bridges, levees and electrical systems would be toted up by NOAA but disregarded by the public as they assess their personal losses, he said. In 2017, winter storm damage to California's roads, bridges and highways cost more than $860 million .

As for 2022, here are some highlights from the NOAA report:

At a news conference Tuesday in Capitola in Santa Cruz County, California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said the state hopes to secure an additional $202 million for flood protection from the Legislature.

"This, by the way, is all on top of the $738 million the last 24 months that we have approved for flood protection," said Crowfoot, as well as $2.4 billion in federal funds over the last five years for the purpose, with more to come from the infrastructure bill.

Will Arnold , a Caltrans spokesman, said the agency had yet to tally up expected costs from the atmospheric river.

"Right now, we're still in emergency mode and awaiting the next storm," he said.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .

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