The frequency of billion-dollar natural disasters is increasing rapidly in the United States due mostly to the cumulative effects of climate change, according to an analysis posted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“The past three years (2016-2018) have been historic, with the annual average number of billion-dollar disasters being more than double the long-term average,” says Adam Smith in a blog post released this month by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.

Since 1980, the U.S. has sustained 241 weather or climate disasters where total damage costs reached or exceeded $1 billion. Fourteen of those—drought, wildfires, two tropical cyclones, eight severe storms and two winter storms—occurred in 2018, the fourth-highest total events in a single year, behind only 2017 and 2011 (16 events each) and 2016 (15 events). Combined, the three most recent years have an annual average of 15 disasters, the highest on record “and well above the annual inflation-adjusted average of 6.2 events per year.”

Read more