September: Flood waters from the Mohawk River in Schenectady, N.Y. from Hurricane Irene. 2011 in America produced a devastating dozen billion-dollar catastrophes.


A new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration analysis, reports that to date, the United States set a record with 12 separate billion dollar weather disasters in 2011-- with aggregate damage of approximately $52 billion. This record year breaks the previous record of nine billion-dollar weather/climate disasters in 2008. The twelve 2011 disasters resulted in the loss of 646 lives, with the National Weather Service reporting over 1,000 deaths across all weather categories for the year.

Previously only 10 such events were reported; the two new billion-dollar weather and climate events added to the 2011 total include the Texas-New Mexico-Arizona wildfires event and the June 18-22 Midwest-Southeast Tornadoes and Severe Weather event, which just exceeded the $1 billion threshold.

This year was not an aberration, said NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco. The seemingly endless onslaught of floods, droughts, wildfires, windstorms, blizzards and tornadoes that have marked 2011 fit within an ongoing increase in the number of natural disasters recorded in the United States.

Lubchenco cited statistics maintained by reinsurer Munich Re and the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, pointing out that some of that increase appears to be driven by climate change. “What we are seeing this year is not just an anomalous year, but a harbinger of things to come for at least a subset of those extreme events that we are tallying,” the NOAA chief told the latest American Geophysical Union meeting.

In January, Munich Re had summed up 2010 thus: “The high number of weather-related natural catastrophes and record temperatures both globally and in different regions of the world provide further indications of advancing climate change.” Climatologist Kevin Trenberth points out that a common  opening statement in the media is “Well, you can’t attribute a single event to climate change.” But the systemic influence on all these weather events nowadays is the extra water vapor lurking in the atmosphere due to climate warming and increased evaporation. There is about 4% more than 30 years ago. This invigorates storms,  providing plenty of moisture for them. It’s unfortunate that public opinion does not yet understand it as one manifestation of climate change, because the prospects are that these kinds of things will only get bigger and worse in the future.

Dr Romm edits Climate Progress, the most important climate science blog.

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