U.S. hit by 7 billion-dollar weather disasters so far this year

LOS ANGELES, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The United States has been hit by seven separate climate disasters, each with losses exceeding 1 billion U.S. dollars, through the end of April, according to the latest monthly climate report released by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The total cost of these events, including five severe weather events, one winter storm and one flooding event, exceeded 19 billion dollars and resulted in 97 direct and indirect fatalities, the nation's premier meteorological agency said in the report released on Monday.

"The number of billion dollar disasters so far in 2023 is significant," the NOAA noted in a news release, adding that only 2017 and 2020 had more during this timeframe, with eight separate disasters recorded in the January-April period.

Last year, the United States was struck by 18 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters totaling more than 165 billion dollars in damage.

The country has sustained 355 weather and climate disasters since 1980 where overall damages exceeded 1 billion dollars, with the total cost of these events exceeding 2.540 trillion dollars.

The annual average from 1980 to 2022 is 8.1 billion-dollar events, and the annual average for the most recent five years is 18 billion-dollar events, according to the NOAA.