"The Walking Dead," which is filmed in Georgia, may be a fictional tale. But in reality, the state is quite apocalyptic. Zombies aren't the reason though; it's the weather, according to a recent study.

U.S. climate officials recently released a series of maps, created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to illustrate how climate disasters have affected America over the last several years.

Since 1980, there have been 203 disasters, which have caused $1.1 trillion of damage, and Georgia was responsible for 67 of them.

That’s the second-highest in the nation since 1980, second only to Texas and tied with Illinois and Oklahoma.

In 2016 alone, there were 15 weather and climate events including wildfires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and more. The Peach State experienced both wildfires and hurricanes.

In fact, last year was the second-worst year for billion-dollar disasters, which was right behind 2011. There were 16 events that year.

Scientists believe that the number of costly weather occurrences is on the rise and climate change may be a contributor.

» Atlanta weather: Forecast, news and updates

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Whitney Wharton, a cognitive neuroscientist at Emory who focuses on Alzheimer’s disease prevention, said she would not be surprised if her National Institutes of Health research grant funding that was canceled and then reinstated this year is terminated a second time. “We are on this roller coaster, and it is literally impossible to plan,” Wharton said. “It feels like one step forward and then two steps back. And I still don’t know what to do at this point.” (Natrice Miller/AJC)

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In 2022, Georgia Power projected its winter peak electricity demand would grow by about 400 megawatts by 2031. Since then, Georgia has experienced a boom of data centers, which require a large load of electricty to run, and Georgia Power's recent forecast shows peak demand growing by 20 times the 400-megawatt estimate from just three years ago. (Illustration by Philip Robibero/AJC)

Credit: Illustration: Philip Robibero / AJC