A year of billion-dollar disasters—and the Maui fires weren’t even the costliest

A record-breaking number of natural disasters that each caused at least $1 billion in damage cost the United States a total of $81 billion this year, data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows, including a devastating wildfires in Hawaii, Hurricane Idalia in western Florida and a drought that killed more than 200 people across the South and Midwest.

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Every state in the country has experienced at least one $1 billion disaster since 1980. The central, south and southeast regions experience high-dollar disasters most frequently, NOAA reports, with at least some part of Texas experiencing more than 100 such events in the last 40 years. Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed New Orleans in 2005, is the costliest U.S. storm on record. Katrina caused $196.3 billion in damage (adjusted for inflation), according to NOAA. There were more $1 billion climate disasters in 2023 than in any other single year. The record was previously held by the year 2020, with 22.

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