Tracking and evaluating U.S. billion dollar weather disasters, 1980–2005

Approximately ten years ago, NOAA's National Climatic Data Center began tracking U.S. weather and climate events which resulted in at least $1 billion in overall damages and costs. The ensuing report, “Billion Dollar U.S. Weather Disasters,” receives over 30,000 web hits per month, and has resulted in numerous news media interviews regarding its content. The report also links to more detailed reports and data concerning each event. During the 1980-2005 period, the U.S. sustained over $390 billion in overall inflation-adjusted damages/costs due to these extreme events. This paper describes the methodology in collecting the statistics, provides a list of the events, and illustrates the distribution of the events spatially and temporally.