This United States has been hit by a record number of natural disasters this year. The NOAA says that as of right now, there have been 23 major disasters, whcih ahs broken the 2022 record. Each of these events has caused at least $1 billion in damage. Experts say that the rise in disasters this year is scary and shows that climate change is making things worse. 

It is clear that the number of major disasters has increased when you look at the average number of disasters from 1980 to 2022 and the average number of disasters in the last five years, which is 18. 

Disasters caused by weather and climate have cost the US economy about $2.615 trillion since 1980. At least one of these disasters cost at least $1 billion. Weather-related disasters cost $383 billion in 2017, mostly from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, as well as wildfires in California. This was the most expensive year for these kinds of events. These results make it clear that something needs to be done because extreme weather events are happening more often and costing more money in the US. 

Also, this summer has been one of the hottest on record in Louisiana, Texas, Florida, New Mexico, Washington, Oregon, and Mississippi. Louisiana had the hottest July ever in July, which broke all previous records. The next coolest summers were in Texas and Florida. NOAA records going back to 1880 show that this summer was the 15th warmest on record in the contiguous United States. The average temperature was 73.0 degrees, which is 1.6 degrees higher than the standard temperature for this time of year. It is getting worse because the high heat is getting worse, which is scary because it is having bad effects.

Sources:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/09/11/us-sets-record-weather-climate-disasters-2023/70822661007/