Posted: 13 Feb 2013 11:11 AM PST
By Daniel J. Weiss and Jackie Weidman
The
United States was subjected to many severe climate-related extreme
weather over the past two years. In 2011 there were 14 extreme weather
events — floods, drought, storms, and wildfires — that each caused at
least $1 billion in damage. There were another 11 such disasters in
2012. Most of these extreme weather events reflect part of the unpaid
bill from climate change — a tab that will only grow over time.
CAP recently documented the human and economic toll from these devastating events in our November 2012 report “Heavy Weather: How Climate Destruction Harms Middle- and Lower- Income Americans.” Since the release of that report, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, has updated its list of “billion-dollar”-damage weather events for 2012, bringing the two-year total to 25 incidents.
From
2011 to 2012 these 25 “billion-dollar damage” weather events in the
United States are estimated to have caused up to $188 billion in total
damage. [1] The two costliest events were the September 2012 drought —
the worst drought in half a century, which baked nearly two-thirds of the continental United States
— and superstorm Sandy, which battered the northeast coast in late
October 2012. The four recently added disastrous weather events were
severe tornadoes and thunderstorms.
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