Climate. USA suffers unprecedented number of extreme events this year

A Federal Agency for the Atmosphere and Oceans (NOAA) began recording these events in 1980. The previous record was in 2020, with 22 events, with damage estimated at over a billion dollars.

In total, since the beginning of this year, these extreme events have caused losses of 57.6 billion dollars in the USA, which is lower than in some previous years, with that record being relative to the number of events, and not the value of damage.

In 2022, the destruction caused by 18 extreme events was estimated at more than 165 billion dollars, in particular due to Hurricane Ian that devastated Florida, where losses were estimated at more than 112 billion dollars.

But it was in 2017 that the destruction cost the most – $383.7 billion – due to hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

During this year, however, with four months to go, the number of extreme events is expected to increase.

Since January, Florida has been hit by Hurricane Idália in August, Hawaii by a devastating fire in the same month, the northeast of the country by an intense cold wave during the winter and California by floods.

Also according to NOAA, these events have already caused the death of at least 253 people.

This new record “constitutes the most recent confirmation of a worsening trend in these catastrophes, many of which have the undeniable mark of climate change”, commented, in a statement, Rachel Cleetus, from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). .

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