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18h ago

NOAA to End Billion-Dollar Disaster Database After 2024

The database, which tracked over $2.9 trillion in damages from extreme weather since 1980, will cease updates due to staffing cuts and proposed funding reductions.

Aerial view of destroyed houses in Port St Lucie, Florida, after a tornado hit the area and caused severe damage as Hurricane Milton swept through Florida on October 11, 2024. The death toll from Hurricane Milton rose to at least 16 on October 11, 2024, officials in Florida said, as residents began the painful process of piecing their lives and homes back together. Nearly 2.5 million households and businesses were still without power, and some areas in the path cut through the Sunshine State by the monster storm from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean remained flooded. (Photo by Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP) (Photo by MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images)
FILE - An aerial photo shows the charred homes of Louise Hamlin, center left, and Chris Wilson, center right, after the Eaton Fire in Altadena, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - Damage from Hurricane Milton is seen at a mobile home community on Manasota Key, in Englewood, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
FILE - Melted metal and burned out cars sit destroyed in a driveway of a home burned by the wildfire that spread through the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Friday, Jan.17, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)

Overview

  • NOAA announced it will retire its Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database, archiving but not updating it beyond 2024.
  • The database has tracked 403 extreme weather events costing over $1 billion each since 1980, totaling $2.945 trillion in damages.
  • Staffing reductions under the current administration and a proposed 24% budget cut for FY2026 are cited as reasons for the database's discontinuation.
  • The loss of this resource will hinder researchers, insurers, and policymakers who rely on its standardized, proprietary data to assess climate and economic risks.
  • The database documented a sharp rise in billion-dollar disasters, with an annual average of 24 over the past five years and a record 28 events in 2023.