The national database on billion-dollar weather and climate disasters has found a new home after the Trump administration decided to ax it earlier this year. Thanks to researchers continuing the work despite a lack of federal support, we can keep the tally going this year — which is already proving to be one of the costliest on record.
Until recently, the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) have shared data and insights on billion-dollar disasters dating back to 1980 on a federal website. NCEI stopped updating that resource in May, “in alignment with evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing changes,” under the Trump administration, according to the website.
We can keep the tally going this year — which is already proving to be one of the costliest on record
Donald Trump has moved quickly to remove information about climate change from government websites since taking office, but has been met with legal challenges and furious efforts to archive that data by people who rely on it for their livelihoods and to inform public health and safety policies. The billion dollar disaster database and its risk map, for instance, were meant to help communities plan ahead by understanding where residents might be most vulnerable and how building codes need to adapt.
The nonprofit research and advocacy group Climate Central launched its version of the database today on its own website. It similarly keeps track of weather and climate-related disasters that have led to at least $1 billion in damages. The tool includes data on disasters since 1980, and adjusts costs for inflation. Adam Smith, who was the lead scientist for NCEI’s billion dollar-disaster tool for the past 15 years, is leading the work now at Climate Central.
Analyzing the first six months of this year, Climate Central found that 14 individual disasters have already cumulatively cost $101.4 billion. Those numbers are really high for the US. The nation has faced 9 separate billion-dollar disasters a year, on average, according to the research. These destructive events have become more frequent and intense since 1980. During that decade, the average was just 3 per year. The last two years have been record-smashing, with 28 and 27 such disasters each, respectively.
Average annual inflation-adjusted costs have grown more than six-fold over roughly the same period of time, reaching $153.2 billion per year in the 2020s compared to $22.6 billion per year in the 80s.
This year started off with the costliest wildfire event on record for the US, the inferno that tore across the greater Los Angeles area. With losses topping $60 billion, the January blazes in LA easily made the first six months of 2025 the costliest of any year so far in the database.
But the Trump administration has decided this kind of thing isn’t worth paying attention to anymore, and is instead actively replacing decades worth of federally-funded climate research with its own brand of disinformation. In July, it took down the federal website that housed Congressionally-mandated national climate assessments. And in August, former fracking executive turned Secretary of Energy Chris Wright commissioned climate skeptics to write up a report on greenhouse gas emissions that rejects scientific consensus on climate change. The Trump administration now faces a lawsuit challenging its use of the misleading report to justify the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to rollback federal regulations on planet-heating emissions.
