(TLP:CLEAR) Research Report – 2025 Year-in-Review Billion Dollar Disasters

Summary: Climate Central, a nonprofit research organization, recently published the “2025 in Review: U.S. Billion-Dollar Disasters,” which analyzes billion-dollar weather and climate disasters that impacted the U.S. between January and December of 2025. The U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database, a public record tracking events costing $1 billion or more (inflation-adjusted) since 1980, is now maintained by Climate Central, taking over after NOAA’s retirement of the project.

Analyst Note: The report found that in 2025, there were 23 weather and climate disasters with at least $1 billion (inflation-adjusted) in U.S. damages. These 23 events caused an estimated 276 fatalities and cost a total of $115 billion in damages. This places 2025 third (behind 2023 and 2024) for the annual number of billion-dollar disasters. It is also well above the average annual number (nine events per year) and cost ($67.6 billion per year) of billion-dollar disasters based on data going back to 1980. Some of the report’s other key findings include:

• The January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires were the costliest event of the year as well as the costliest wildfires on record. With $61.2 billion in damages, this devastating event was about twice as costly as the previous record wildfire. 
• Severe weather accounted for a record 21 billion-dollar disasters in 2025 — concentrated in a series of spring and summer tornado outbreaks across the central U.S.
• The number of billion-dollar severe storms set a new record in 2025, with 21 such events. This reflects near-record numbers of damaging high wind and tornado reports during the spring and summer of 2025.
• A billion-dollar drought affected the western U.S. in 2025. This event was primarily driven by heat, rather than by a lack of precipitation. This is consistent with an emerging trend of heat-driven drought in the western U.S.
• The catastrophic flash flooding in the Texas Hill Country in July 2025 was one of the deadliest inland floods in U.S. history. This event did not result in losses of at least $1 billion, underscoring the full toll of extreme weather events isn’t reflected in dollar-value losses alone.
• The frequency of U.S. billion-dollar disasters has increased dramatically since 1980 due to the rise in extreme weather and a growing number of people, homes, and businesses in harm’s way.

Original Source: https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/2025-in-review

Additional Reading:

• US weather disaster costs neared record high in 2025. Here’s why.
• In 2025, the US suffered a billion-dollar disaster every 10 days

Mitigation Recommendations:

• EPA – Emergency Response for Drinking Water and Wastewater Utilities

Related WaterISAC PIRs: 16 & 17