The U.S. has had an all-time record breaking year with a total of 14 weather disasters that exceeded $1 billion. Extreme weather has killed more than 1,000 people and cost over $52 billion in damages. The old record for $1 billion weather disasters was 9 in 2008. National Weather Service Director , Jack Hayes, a meteorologist since 1970 has never before seen an extreme weather year as 2011, calling it, “the deadly, destructive and relentless 2011.”
A Dawn.com report states: “The number of weather catastrophes that pass the billion-dollar mark when adjusted into constant dollars is increasing with each decade. In the 1980s, the country averaged slightly more than one a year. In the 1990s, it was 3.8 a year. It jumped to 4.6 in the first decade of this century and in the past two years, it has averaged 7.5. “Other years had higher overall damage figures because of one gargantuan disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and a 1988 drought.
“But this is not just about numbers.
“’Each of these events is a huge disaster for victims who experience them,’ Lubchenco said in an email. ‘They are an unprecedented challenge for the nation.’
“Half the billion-dollar disasters were tornado outbreaks in one of the deadliest years on record. More than 540 people were killed in those six tragedies. In four days in April, there were 343 tornadoes in the largest outbreak on record, including 199 in one day, which is another record.
“Texas had more than a million acres burned by wildfire, a record for the state, and Oklahoma set a record for the hottest month ever…”
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Administrator , Jane Lubchenco (also quoted above) stated at the American Geophysical Union science conference in San Francisco on December 7, 2011 that, “what we’re seeing this year is not just an anomalous year, but a harbinger of things to come.”
