Tuesday, January 17, 2017

A Swarm of 30 Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters Socked the Planet in 2016

The yearly number of billion-dollar global weather disasters, adjusted for inflation, as compiled by insurance broker Aon Benfield in their Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe Reports. The increasing trend in weather disaster losses is at least partially due to increases in wealth and population, and to people moving to more vulnerable areas--though the studies attempting to correct damage losses for these factors are highly uncertain. Climate change may also be partly to blame for the rise in disaster losses. (Credit: Aon Benfield) Click to enlarge.
Earth had a tough year for billion-dollar weather-related natural disasters in 2016, with 30.  This is the third-largest number on record going back to 1990, said insurance broker Aon Benfield in their Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe Report issued January 17. The average from 1990 - 2016 was 22 billion-dollar weather disasters; the highest number since 1990 was 41, in 2013.  The combined economic losses from all 315 weather and earthquake disasters catalogued by Aon Benfield in 2016 was $210 billion, which is 21% above the 16-year average of $174 billion. The U.S. had the most billion-dollar weather disasters of any country, with fourteen included on the Aon Benfield list (plus one more catalogued by NOAA--see right).  China came in second, with seven.  Flooding was the most expensive peril globally for the fourth year in a row.

 The report noted: “…it can be concluded that there has been an increase in both annual and individual weather disaster costs in the last nearly four decades.  It can reasonably be assumed that the combination of effects from climate change, more intense weather events, greater coastal exposures, and population migration patterns are all equal contributors to the loss trend.”
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Four nations see their costliest weather disasters in history
The yearly number of billion-dollar U.S. weather disasters, adjusted for inflation, as compiled by NOAA/NCEI. Click to Enlarge.
By comparing the Aon Benfield numbers to historical disaster costs at EM-DAT, the International Disaster Database, we see that at least four nations set records for their all-time most expensive weather-related disaster in 2016.  For comparison, nine nations had their most expensive weather-related natural disasters in history in 2015.  Here are the nations that set records in 2016 for their most expensive weather-related disaster in history:

 Read more at A Swarm of 30 Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters Socked the Planet in 2016
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