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U.S. Logged 23 Billion-Dollar Disasters in 2025, Costing $115 Billion

Climate Central now publishes the annual tally following NOAA’s exit.

TOPSHOT - In this aerial view taken from a helicopter, burned homes are seen from above during the Palisades fire near the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California on January 9, 2025. Terrified residents caught in blazing neighbourhoods, influencers ignoring the ban on drones and the frightening unpredictability of the wildfires are just some of what journalists covering the fires ravaging Los Angeles for AFP have had to manage. The United States' second-largest city has never faced a blaze of this scale, driven by an extreme autumn drought and fierce Santa Ana winds -- the strongest since 2011 -- that have turned dry hills into kindling, fuelling a relentless inferno that has raged for more than a week. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP) (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)
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A neighborhood in Pacific Palisades on the one-year anniversary of the fires that ravaged Los Angeles.
Flames engulf a structure as the Eaton Fire burns in Pasadena, California, on January 8, 2025.

Overview

  • The 2025 total included at least 276 deaths and ranked third on record behind 2023 and 2024, marking a 15th straight above-average year.
  • January’s Los Angeles wildfires caused about $61.2 billion in losses, the costliest U.S. wildfire on record.
  • Severe convective storms made up 91% of the year’s events and accounted for roughly $51 billion in damage across large swaths of the country.
  • No major hurricane struck the U.S. in 2025 despite an active Atlantic season that produced three Category 5 storms.
  • Climate Central relaunched the discontinued federal database, noting climate change and growing development in harm’s way as key drivers, with disasters averaging one every 10 days.