Environment
The Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters of 2014
Here's a grim reminder of the rising number of weather and climate calamities.
Crippling drought, tornado stampedes, and a record-setting deluge—these were some of the weather calamities in 2014 that each caused more than $1 billion in damages.
That's according to a new accounting from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, which has identified eight such disasters. That grim tally is lower than it was for the past three years (nine in 2013, 11 in 2012, an incredible 16 in 2011). But save for two other years it's still higher than all the other annual counts dating from 1980. The aggravated trauma of 2014 serves as an unpleasant reminder that throughout the world and especially North America, brutal weather disasters are becoming ever-more common.