Last year saw the third-highest number of billion-dollar disasters on record, with 23 weather and climate-related events in the U.S. that each caused more than $1 billion in damages in 2025.
That’s according to an analysis published Thursday morning by the science nonprofit Climate Central, which recently launched its own version of the now-defunct federal database that tracked weather- and climate-related events that caused at least $1 billion in property damage. For years, NOAA maintained the database, which some used to measure climate impacts, before the Trump administration discontinued it in May.
Climate Central’s analysis finds that the most expensive disasters in 2025 cumulatively caused $115 billion in damages and killed at least 276 people. Only 2023 and 2024 have seen higher damages.
The database shows that billion-dollar disasters are on the rise. The U.S. saw an average of eight such events each year from 1980 through 2019, with an average annual cost of around $55 billion. But from 2020 through 2025, the average rose to 23 events and an annual cost of $147 billion.
