Record-breaking disasters in 2025 estimated to cost billions
It has been a historic and costly start to 2025 as disasters have potentially racked up billions in damages in recent months.
The year began with destructive wildfires in Los Angeles in January, fueled by a strong Santa Ana wind event. The Eaton and Palisades fires were the second and third most destructive fires in the city's history, burning over 16,000 structures and killing 29 people.
According to a report from UCLA, these fires are estimated to cost between $75 billion and $125 billion or more. This would place the LA wildfires among some of the most expensive disasters in United States history.
Severe weather season then got busy. From March 13th to 16th, rounds of severe storms produced 117 tornadoes, a record outbreak for the month of March. Two EF-4 tornadoes struck Arkansas on the same day. Another stretch of severe weather developed at the end of the month as more than 70 tornadoes were reported between March 30 and 31st.
April showers arrived, bringing extensive and historic flooding. A storm system that stretched from East Texas to the Ohio Valley produced more than 80 tornadoes in the first week of April and led to catastrophic flooding as rainfall totals exceeded a foot in much of Arkansas, the Missouri Bootheel, and Tennessee and Kentucky.
NOAA estimates that each of these severe weather outbreaks could cost billions of dollars, continuing a trend of increasing disasters in recent years. The annual number of billion-dollar disasters has jumped to 23 or more disasters in the last five years, as climate change is accelerating the frequency and intensity of natural disasters.
