From the wildfires in Maui to Hurricane Idalia in Florida and heavy flooding in Southern California, this year the U.S. has been struck with a major natural disaster at an approximate rate of one every week and half. With four months still to go, it’s already the most disastrous year in recorded history, according to recent data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Altogether, NOAA reported severe weather events this year caused 253 direct and indirect fatalities, but those could continue to rise as 66 were still missing in Maui as of Tuesday. Each disaster required at least $1 billion in relief funds, altogether costing $57.6 billion in damages, according to NOAA. The disasters took place in a landscape of changing climates, with the hottest summer ever recorded causing power outages and droughts in some regions and severe rain caused by tropical storms flooding others. Paired with the natural climate pattern, El Niño, high temperatures are estimated to have contributed to the deaths of thousands of U.S. residents this year alone. As temperatures rise due to global warming, natural disasters like hurricanes also become more severe, pulling in more heat and becoming stronger with more rainfall.
“These record-breaking numbers, during a year that is on track to be one of the hottest ever, are sobering and the latest confirmation of a worsening trend in costly disasters, many of which bear the undeniable fingerprints of climate change,” said Rachel Cletus of the Union of Concerned Scientists, in a statement Monday. “The year is far from over, with the busiest part of the hurricane season just getting underway, making it likely that these numbers will climb further.”