These are the billion-dollar disasters of 2024: Why analyzing them matters

The amount of damage caused by billion-dollar disasters reached an unprecedented amount in 2024, and the total cost of the destruction is still growing, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

As of Nov. 1, there have been 24 confirmed weather or climate disaster events in the U.S with losses exceeding $1 billion, according to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, which compiles an annual report that details the billion-dollar disasters of the year.

The billion-dollar disasters include 17 severe storm events, four tropical cyclone events, one wildfire event and two winter storm events. Combined, the billion-dollar disasters of 2024 resulted in at least 418 fatalities and caused significant economic loss in the regions impacted, according to NOAA.

The cost of the damage from billion-dollar disasters is so extensive for 2024 that NOAA is still tallying up the final numbers on several events, Adam Smith, an applied climatologist at NOAA, told ABC News. The full report will be released on Jan. 9, according to NOAA.

The agency has been tracking billion-dollar disasters in the U.S. since 1980, analyzing the most impactful and most common weather and climate hazards annually, Smith said. These types of events can include drought, wildfire, hurricanes, flooding, heat waves, winter storms and severe storms that contain threats like hail and high wind damage, Smith said.

The silver lining of analyzing the most expensive disasters allows scientists and emergency managers to learn from them, Smith added.

“From all of this, we’re trying to show how the frequency and the cost of these impacts affect American lives and livelihoods in different regions in different states, using the best public and private sector data partners,” Smith said. “It provides a climatology of showing where the hot spots are across the country from year to year for different weather and climate extremes.”

Cost of disaster

Four hundred billion-dollar disasters have occurred since then, exceeding losses of $2.78 trillion, according to the agency.

And the number of climate and weather events to exceed $1 billion in losses has been growing exponentially in the last several decades, Smith said.

While the annual average number of billion-dollar disasters between 1980 and 2023 is 8.5 events, the annual average from the past five years is 20.4 events per year, according to NOAA.

The frequency has been increasing rapidly since about 2009-2010, according to a model designed by Charchit Shukla, a Ph.D student in industrial and manufacturing systems engineering at Iowa State University.

While the impacts of many major weather-related events are being amplified by climate change, the combination between a growing population and more infrastructure on the coast are also to blame for the way weather and climate disasters are impacting communities, Cameron MacKenzie, associate professor in industrial and manufacturing systems engineering at Iowa State University, told ABC News.

These are some of the most impactful billion-dollar disasters of 2024:

Hurricane Helene

Hurricanes were, by far, the most impactful weather-related disasters on humanity and the economy in 2024, Smith said. Over the past 45 years, tropical cyclones have inflicted more than $1 trillion in damage, Smith said.

“They’re very powerful destructive events, with multiple hazards: storm surge, high wind and, of course, flooding, along our coastlines — and even inland from the coast, we have a lot of population, a lot of assets at risk,” he said.

The back-to-back hurricanes that barreled into the Gulf Coast of Florida before causing widespread damage far beyond initial landfall began with Hurricane Helene.

Helene made landfall on Florida’s Big Bend as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 24 bringing up to 15 feet of storm surge to the coast before causing damage in Georgia, western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia.

The storm caused catastrophic flash flooding once it reached the mountain region of Asheville, North Carolina.

The impacts as Helene made its track were “quite extreme” and extensive, Smith said.

The storm killed 225 people, according to NOAA. The full extent of the damage has yet to be determined.

Hurricane Milton

Communities all over the Southeast were still reeling from Helene when Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, on Oct. 9.

The Category 3 storm brought storm surge up to 10 feet along the coast and spawned dozens of tornadoes across the southern peninsula of Florida that damaged homes, businesses vehicles and other infrastructure.

The damage caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton combined will likely tally above $100 billion combined, Smith said, adding that the extent of the damage is still being assessed.

“Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton hitting the west coast of Florida within two weeks of each other was quite anomalous,” Smith said. “And that’s a compound disaster with cascading impacts.”

Twenty-four people died as a result of Milton, according to NOAA.

Hurricanes Debby and Beryl

Two Category 1 storms proved they were well capable of causing more than $1 billion in damage.

Hurricane Debby made landfall near Steinhatchee, Florida, on Aug. 5 before it made a second landfall near Bulls Bay, South Carolina, three days layer.

After its initial landfall, Debby marched up the East Coast, bringing heavy rain, flash flooding, river flooding and strong winds to several states. The remnants of the storm fueled flooding across parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and southeastern New York as it merged with another system in the region. The stretch of unsettled weather also produced an EF-1 tornado that impacted Buffalo, New York.

Hurricane Beryl was the second named storm of the season, making landfall in Texas on July 8, where it produced widespread high wind damage as the storm and caused significant power outages for millions of people for several days.

Beryl also produced more than 50 tornadoes across eastern Texas, western Louisiana and southern Arkansas.

Debby is estimated to have caused $2.5 billion in damage, while Beryl is estimated to have caused $7.2 billion in damage according to NOAA.

Tornado outbreaks

Between June 24 and 26, states like Nebraska, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Massachusetts were impacted by severe thunderstorms that brought tornadoes, damaging winds and hail. The notable events include an EF-3 tornado hit Whitman, Nebraska, and the surrounding area as well as a tornado that impacted Providence County, Rhode Island.

That event cost about $1.7 billion in damage, according to NOAA.

The Central and Eastern U.S. experienced an outbreak of more than 79 tornadoes that developed between July 13 and July 16.

Thirty-two tornadoes that spawned on July 15 broke the record for the Chicago region for the most tornadoes in one day.

Other states that saw the most impact were Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and New York. Considerable damage to homes, businesses and other businesses were recorded.

More than 1,000 reports of high wind and hail damage were also recorded during the multi-day event, which is estimated to have cost $2.4 billion.

New Mexico wildfires

Multiple wildfires that sparked in New Mexico from June 17 to July 7 damaged homes, vehicles, businesses, agriculture and other infrastructure.

The South Fork Fire, near the town of Ruidoso, was the most impactful. Spreading rapidly due to strong winds, the South Fork Fire destroyed more than 1,000 structures.

The New Mexico wildfires caused an estimated $1.7 billion in damage, according to NOAA.