Hurricanes, Other $1B Disasters Are Piling Up For The Nation

$10.8 billion - Missouri River and area flooding, March.

$6.2 billion - Mississippi River and area flooding, July.

$5 billion - Tropical Storm Imelda, July.

$4.5 billion - Rockies and northern states tornadoes, May.

$4.5 billion - California and Alaska wildfires, summer and fall.

$3 billion - Arkansas River flooding, June.

$1.7 billion - Texas and central states tornadoes and severe storms, October.

$1.6 billion - Hurricane Dorian, September.

$1.6 billion - Texas hail storm, March.

$1.5 billion - Southeast tornadoes and severe storms, May.

$1.3 billion - Southern and eastern states tornadoes and severe weather, April.

$1.3 billion - Southeastern, central and northeast states tornadoes and severe storms, February.

$1 billion - Central states severe weather, May.

$1 billion - Colorado hail storms, July.

Hurricanes remain the most expensive natural disaster - even when compared to the massive floods, powerful tornadoes, drought, wildfires and other catastrophes plaguing the United States.

And the costs keep going up at a rate dire enough that meteorologists are starting to incorporate the potential expense in their forecasts.

In 2019, 14 weather and climate disasters cost the country more than $1 billion each, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Centers for Environmental Information. Hurricane Dorian, which brushed South Carolina in September, was one of them.

Three other of the disasters were storms with tornadoes that swept at least partly through the state.

The total cost of all the disasters was $45 billion. The most expensive was the series of floods along the Mississippi River and tributaries, which the centers counted as three disasters.

But Dorian and Tropical Storm Imelda, which also erupted in September, cost $6.6 billion combined. The South Carolina in-state cost wasn't included in the report's breakdown.

The total cost of losses has continued to climb since 1980 and now is more than $1.75 trillion, the centers said. About half of that cost came from hurricanes and tropical storms even though they make up only about one-fifth of the disasters.

Last year was the fifth straight of more than 10 of the billion-dollar losses, the center said. That's a product of more frequent weather disasters, inflation and more people in the way, researchers say.

"Even after adjusting for inflation, the United States experienced more than twice the number of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters during the 2010s than in the 2000s," said Adam Smith, a scientist with the center.

More exposure of population and property value, more intense storms and climate warming all are contributing to the rising cost. In the Eastern states, heavy rainfall is becoming more common; in the West it's drought and wildfires.

"Each of these changes in extremes are becoming more visible in relation to the influence of climate change," Smith said.

The centers' data is used to assess the severity of individual disasters and gauge future risk. The National Hurricane Center, private forecasting companies, industries that provide insurance company backup coverage and computer modelers all pull from it.

Private forecasting companies have begun to predict storm damages in terms of dollars. The hurricane center doesn't do that, but it does use the numbers in storm histories and public service reports.

"We used it last year to point out to people that hurricanes not considered to be 'major' hurricanes can still cause considerable damage and loss of life," said Michael Brennan, hurricane center branch chief.