US saw a historic number of billion-dollar disasters in 2023: NOAA

Last year proved to be one of the costliest in the U.S. due to extreme weather disasters, according to a new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report.

Last year proved to be one of the costliest in the United States due to extreme weather disasters, according to a new report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The U.S. was hit with more billion-dollar disasters in 2023 than any other year on record, highlighting the increased risk stemming from a changing climate, NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information announced Tuesday.

There were 28 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters last year, smashing the previous record set in 2020 of 22 billion-dollar disasters, according to the report.

These disasters included 17 severe storms, four flooding events, two tropical cyclones, two tornado outbreaks, one winter storm, one wildfire, and one drought and heat wave event. The firestorm that caused the Maui wildfires on Aug. 8, 2023, and Hurricane Idalia, which struck Florida's Gulf Coast at the end of August, were included in those expensive disasters.