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Private sector revives the climate disaster database Trump tried to squash

<i>Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource</i><br/>Burned homes are seen in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles following the Palisades Fire on January 9

By CNN Newsource

Published January 8, 2026 11:02 AM

By Andrew Freedman, CNN

(CNN) — There were 23 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the United States last year, adding up to a total of $115 billion in damages, according to a new report from the climate research nonprofit Climate Central.

The report, and establishment of the Billion-Dollar Disasters Database within Climate Central, is a rare example of the private sector taking on government responsibilities.

The database allows taxpayers, media and researchers to track the cost of natural disasters, largely through property losses — spanning extreme events from hurricanes to hailstorms. It has been especially useful for the insurance and real estate industries and has been a way for the public to track the effects of fossil fuels on extreme weather and climate events.

The Trump administration halted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s tracking of that data set in May. Then Climate Central hired Adam Smith, who had produced the disaster reports for NOAA, after he left government service amid cuts made across the oceans and atmosphere agency. Smith brought the database and its methodology with him to Climate Central.

The Climate Central database uses effectively the same methodology as NOAA’s did, in order to be a direct continuation of the government’s previous work.

Last year ranks third, behind 2023 and 2024, on the list for the greatest number of billion-dollar disasters, and well above average for the cost to the country based on data going back to 1980, Climate Central found.

Specifically looking at “severe weather events” such as tornadoes and hailstorms, 2025 reached a record high, with 21 such occurrences. Another unique aspect of 2025 was a billion-dollar drought that affected the West, driven largely by heat rather than just a lack of precipitation.

According to Climate Central, the time between individual billion-dollar disasters over the course of a year is shrinking, having fallen from 82 days during the 1980s to 16 days during the past 10 years. The average time between billion-dollar disasters during 2025 was just 10 days.

By far the costliest disaster of 2025 was the Los Angeles wildfires last January, which killed more than two dozen people and destroyed more than 16,000 homes and businesses. It amounted to $61.2 billion in damages, making the event the country’s costliest wildfires on record.

The second-most costly event of 2025 was a March tornado outbreak in the Central states that killed 43 people and caused $11 billion in damages.

Remarkably, the year saw total weather and climate disaster losses climb above $100 billion despite the lack of a landfalling hurricane.

The overall increase in billion-dollar disasters over time and in their cost is partly due to human-caused climate change, which is making certain types of extreme weather events more frequent and severe, as well as population growth and suburban sprawl.

In short, there are more homes and businesses that can be affected by severe weather now than there were in 1980, when NOAA began tracking such statistics.

Climate Central intends to expand its billion-dollar database in the coming years, picking up where NOAA left off and potentially widening the data to incorporate smaller dollar scales, among other advances.