The U.S. has sustained 188 weather-related disasters since 1980 in which overall damages and costs reached or exceeded $1 billion at the time of the event, and with cumulative costs topping $1 trillion. Twelve occurred during 2011 alone—the most for any year on record, with total costs of $52 billion. In 2015, there were ten disasters with overall damages exceeding $1 billion. Two damage figures are given for events prior to 2002: the first represents actual dollar costs and is not adjusted for inflation. The second (in parentheses) is the dollar cost normalized to 2002 dollars using a GNP inflation/wealth index. The total normalized losses for the 99 events are over $725 billion. Sources include Storm Data (NCDC publication), the National Weather Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, other U.S. government agencies, individual state emergency management agencies, state and regional climate centers, and insurance industry estimates.
