NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) tracks U.S. weather and climate events that have
great economic and societal impacts. Since 1980, the U.S. has sustained 241 weather and climate disasters where the overall damage costs reached or exceeded $1 billion (including adjustments based on the Consumer Price Index, as of January 2019). The cumulative cost for these 241 events exceeds $1.6 trillion.
...The number and cost of disasters are increasing over time due to a combination of increased exposure, vulnerability, and the fact the climate change is increasing the frequency of some types of extremes that lead to billion-dollar disasters.
Cost Comparisons
The year 2018 also experienced the 4th highest total costs ($91.0 billion),as noted below in the data plot. The combined costs of the 2018 disasters trails only the years 2017 ($312.7 billion),2005 ($220.8 billion) and 2012 ($128.6 billion) when all years are inflation-adjusted to January 2019 dollars.
The accumulation in the estimated cost of billion dollar weather and climate disasters on a monthly basis, for each year since 1980
The annual cost average for billion-dollar disasters is $42.8 billion (CPI-adjusted) over the period of record (1980–2018). The annual cost average over the last 5-years (2014–2018) is $99.1 billion (CPI-adjusted),more than double the long-term average. In fact, the total cost over the last 5 years (2014-2018) is approximately $500 billion, which is nearly $100 billion / year.