Weather disasters cost the United States a whopping $95 Billion in 2020. That may seem like a huge number to you, but it actually wasn't even close to the costliest year on record. 2020 ranked as the 4th most costly year. 2017 sits in the top spot with disasters costing over $300 Billion.
From destructive wildfires out west, to a record breaking hurricane season, 2020 certainly made its mark. There were 22 different billion dollar disasters affecting people across the country. Odds are one of these disasters impacted you or your business in some form.
The 2020 Hurricane Season was merciless with a record number of storms forming. The northern Gulf Coast was hit particularly hard. Hurricane Laura slammed Louisiana in August causing $19 Billion dollars in damages, making it the most costly disaster of 2020. Laura was a Category 4 Storm at landfall and the strongest hurricane to hit Louisiana, since 1856.
The Western Wildfires in California, Oregon and Washington brought massive losses of over $16 Billion and sadly killed 46 people. This was definitely a historic wildfire season with over 10 million acres burned. For some perspective, the worst season before this one in the U.S. burned only 4.2 million acres.
The third most costly disaster of 2020 may surprise you, it was the Midwest derecho event in August. A derecho is an organized line of fast moving thunderstorms that produces widespread severe winds for a long period of time. Over the course of 14 hours a line of storms traveled from South Dakota to Ohio causing $11 Billion in damage. This included extensive damage to the soybean and corn crops in Iowa.
Data used to determine these statistics was published by NOAA.
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