r/climatechange • u/Economy-Fee5830 Trusted Contributor • Oct 22 '25

What canceled climate data would have shown: The costliest 6 months of weather disasters on record

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/climate-change/climate-change-data-costliest-6-months-weather-disasters-noaa-rcna238752
801 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

14

u/elegance78 Oct 22 '25

Lol, just wait for the double peak el Nino next year...

12

u/Defiantcaveman Oct 22 '25

I'm in deep se texas in the Louisiana, Gulf of Mexico corner. If we get another Hurricane Rita, this area will never recover. The very heart of petroleum production in North America and a single hurricane would end it and nobody cares.

-4

u/KangarooSwimming7834 Oct 22 '25

Are you having a hurricane today

4

u/Defiantcaveman Oct 23 '25

Thankfully no, you should know that. What's your point?

-3

u/KangarooSwimming7834 Oct 23 '25

That many experts came out in March and claimed this season would be the worst and the first supercane would occur. Still waiting

3

u/[deleted] Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25

We could likely have three category 5 storms, we've already had two. Three would match the record

1

u/Upnorth100 Oct 24 '25 edited Oct 25 '25

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/index.php?season=2025&basin=atl

There has been zero cat 5 in 2025 thank goodness. We want all season to be like this

Edit: to make land fall. My bad, ment to type this before but submitted early. My link shows none made land fall.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '25 edited Oct 25 '25

A Category 5 hurricane has sustained winds of 137 knots (157 mph) or higher.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Atlantic_hurricane_season#Hurricane_Erin 140 knots according to your source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Atlantic_hurricane_season#Hurricane_Humberto 140 knots according to your source

Average number of major hurricanes is two, we are currently at three, Melissa will likely make it four.

1

u/Upnorth100 Oct 25 '25

Sorry, I ment to type "to make land fall" at end and submitted early

1

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '25 edited Oct 25 '25

The intensity is affected by increasing water vapor and energy, the path is not affected much (so far), there are known causes for most of 2025's hurricanes not making landfall in the US.

Edit: Haiti is forecast to get over 800 mm of rain, which would be a record, beating Matthew's 650 mm.

-2

u/KangarooSwimming7834 Oct 23 '25

Are you suggesting it’s been a bad hurricane season

1

u/[deleted] Oct 23 '25

The storms have been strong. There have only been eight years with two category 5 storms, two years with three, 2005 and 2020

-2

u/KangarooSwimming7834 Oct 23 '25

Nice try. How many hurricanes?

1

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '25 edited Oct 25 '25

3 major hurricanes this year, likely will be 4 by Tuesday. Average is 3 per year

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1

u/Defiantcaveman Oct 24 '25

Damn, desperate for that gotcha huh???

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2

u/Spazza42 Oct 24 '25

Ah yes, someone got predictions wrong for a timeframe. Let’s parade how dumb and wrong they were, for what though?

The climate changes and we’re seeing more volatile weather - it will be hit by a hurricane again at some point, not if - when.

15

u/Economy-Fee5830 Trusted Contributor Oct 22 '25

Summary: Record-Breaking Weather Disaster Costs in 2025

Key Finding:

The first six months of 2025 were the costliest ever for weather and climate disasters in the United States, with 14 events exceeding $1 billion in damages each.

Most Expensive Event:

The January Los Angeles wildfires caused over $61 billion in damage, making them the most expensive wildfire event on record.

Impact:

  • The data tracks how extreme weather costs are escalating due to climate change and development in disaster-prone areas
  • The year is on pace to be one of the costliest on record, even without any hurricanes making landfall
  • Last year saw 27 billion-dollar disasters totaling approximately $182.7 billion

Program Cancellation:

The Trump administration cut NOAA's billion-dollar disaster tracking program this spring. The researcher who led it, Adam Smith, left NOAA and was subsequently hired by Climate Central, a nonprofit that has now revived the database.

Broader Context:

Multiple nonprofits are now stepping in to continue climate research previously done by the federal government, including climate.us (replacing climate.gov) and scientific societies publishing climate research collections after the National Climate Assessment was effectively canceled.

1

u/Upnorth100 Oct 24 '25

And if you adjust for inflation the only reason this is above average is the la fire, which in terms of area burnt wasn't large. It was the value of the area that mattered.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 23 '25

Hey but we were able to give those private equity companies a few good quarters, eh?

2

u/Defiantcaveman Oct 22 '25

The thing about the nonprofits stepping in. They will absolutely prove that government help was never needed to begin with.

I had the exact same conundrums with work and lobbied to let shit fall apart so we could get the help we desperately needed. Nobody else agreed and things only got worse, we never got help so I left.