The most disaster-prone U.S. counties

The number of billion-dollar weather events affecting the U.S. has crept upward over the past few decades. (Credit: Arcady/Adobe Stock)

Since 1980, the United States has averaged 7.9 billion-dollar-damage weather disasters each year and around $57.1 billion in total losses. In 2022, however, weather-related disasters caused around $171.5 billion in damage, according to the NOAA, with 18 of these events each causing over $1 billion in damage. These major weather events included drought, flooding, winter storms, hurricanes and tornado outbreaks.

The number of billion-dollar weather events affecting the U.S. has crept upward over the past few decades. The NOAA reports from 1980 to 1989 the U.S. averaged 3.3 of these events a year; from 1990 to 1999 there were an average of 5.7 each year; from 2000 to 2009 there were an average of 6.7 billion-dollar weather events annually; and from 2010 to 2019, the average was 13.1 of each year. This change is even more striking when you look at shorter-term, recent data, which shows there were an average of 20 billion-dollar-plus weather events annually over the last three years (2020 to 2022).