California Storm Damage Could Top $1 Billion - The New York Times

U.S.|California tempest harm could apical $1 billion.

The harm from weeks of storms and flooding successful California could transcend a cardinal dollars, according to the state’s exigency bureau and backstage upwind forecasters. That toll comes connected the heels of 2022, 1 of the worst connected grounds for large-scale upwind and clime disasters astir the United States, according to information released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“It’s apt that this is going to beryllium astatine slightest respective cardinal dollars,” said Jonathan Porter, main meteorologist astatine AccuWeather. “It volition unluckily articulation the nine of billion-dollar disasters.”

The federation was struck past twelvemonth by 18 disasters that caused much than $1 cardinal each successful damage. That’s the third-highest fig successful the 43 years that NOAA has been keeping records.

The lone different years connected grounds with much billion-dollar disasters, adjusted for inflation, are 2020 and 2021.

At the apical of the 2022 database is Hurricane Ian, which caused $113 cardinal successful damage, the country’s third-costliest hurricane since 1980 down Hurricanes Katrina and Harvey. The drought and vigor question successful the Western and Central United States was the second-worst catastrophe successful 2022, causing $22 cardinal successful damage.

All told, past year’s 18 large-scale disasters caused $165 cardinal successful damage, according to NOAA — greater than the annual economical output of West Virginia and Alaska enactment together.

Here are immoderate different reasons past year’s disasters stood out:

• Hurricane Nicole, which struck Florida connected Nov. 10, was the archetypal November hurricane to marque landfall successful the United States successful astir 40 years.

• Typhoon Merbok, which damaged homes successful Alaska, was “the strongest tempest to participate the Bering Sea during September successful 70 years.”

• Alaska passed the million-acre people for onshore burned by wildfires connected June 18 — the earliest successful the past 32 years. Average temperatures successful Alaska were 2.6 degrees Fahrenheit higher than mean past year, astir treble the somesthesia summation successful the contiguous United States.

• At slightest 40 percent of the onshore wide of the mainland United States has been successful drought for the past 119 weeks — longer than astatine immoderate different clip successful the 22 years the U.S. Drought Monitor has been keeping track.

• More tornadoes were reported successful March 2022 than immoderate different March connected record, going backmost to 1950. There were 1,331 — 3 times the mean for the month.