Weather-related disasters across the country last year accounted for $45 billion in costs, according to a government report out this week.
The National Centers for Environmental Information's annual climate report released Wednesday tracked major weather events in 2019 including flooding, tornadoes and extreme heat.
The report cites 14 disasters last year each with losses exceeding $1 billion, including three inland flooding events, eight severe storm events, two tropical cyclone events (Dorian and Imelda) and one wildfire event.
These billion-dollar disasters in the U.S. have doubled over the past decade, resulting in more than $800 billion in costs, according to the report.
In 2019, Georgia had less than $1 billion in total weather-related damages and economic losses, according to AccuWeather forecasters. Those damages were primarily due to 60 tornadoes, one hurricane and several incidents of severe wind and hail hitting the state.
When adjusted for inflation, the U.S. experienced 119 billion-dollar disasters between 2010 and 2019, compared to 59 from 2000 to 2009, said the National Centers for Environmental Information’s report.
Last year was the second-wettest year on record in the contiguous U.S., and while average temperatures were the coolest since 2014, they still ranked above the 20th-century average, according to the data.
Georgia experienced its warmest year on record in 2019. Drought conditions placed central Georgia among the driest locations in the Southeast, according to the Southeast Regional Climate Center.
>> READ MORE: 2019 could be Atlanta’s warmest year on record
The state fared better in 2019 than in past years, according to the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency. “In 2016, 2017 and 2018, Georgia suffered at least one presidentially declared major disaster. These disasters require a minimum of uninsured public and nonprofit damages exceeding approximately $14.8 million. In 2019, Georgia had no presidentially declared major disasters,” said a GEMA spokesman in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Even so, Georgia farmers are still recovering from Hurricane Michael, which hit in October 2018. Georgia agriculture losses topped $2.5 billion, according to University System of Georgia estimates. Some farmers were awaiting long-promised federal disaster aid a year after the storm.
AccuWeather experts — using a different set of factors — estimated total 2019 damage and economic losses in the U.S. to be higher than the government report. According to AccuWeather, the figure is $142 billion.
AccuWeather estimates include a range of factors such as damage to homes and businesses and their contents, job and wage losses, farm and crop losses, infrastructure damage, business losses and long-term impacts such as health effects that may result from flooding or forest fires.
“Official estimates of damage do not fully take into account uninsured losses as well as lost work hours and damage sustained by contaminated water, in addition to a range of other direct and indirect impacts,” said Joel N. Myers, founder and CEO of AccuWeather.
Among the total losses noted by AccuWeather in 2019 are $80 billion in losses due to California wildfires, along with $22 billion from hurricanes, $19.5 billion from tornadoes and severe local storms, $12.5 billion from flooding and $8 billion from winter storms across the country.
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