Private sector revives the climate disaster database Trump tried to squash
CNN••business
Key Points:
- In 2025, the U.S. experienced 23 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters totaling $115 billion in damages, ranking third highest for the number of such events since 1980, according to Climate Central.
- Climate Central established the Billion-Dollar Disasters Database to continue tracking natural disaster costs after NOAA ceased its reporting in 2023, employing the same methodology and hiring former NOAA analyst Adam Smith.
- The year 2025 set a record with 21 severe weather events like tornadoes and hailstorms, and included a billion-dollar drought in the West driven largely by heat rather than precipitation shortages.
- The costliest disaster was the Los Angeles wildfires in January, causing $61.2 billion in damages and
