Extreme Weather News

Costlier Disasters Push U.S. to Buy Reinsurance

The federal government, seeking to protect itself from the growing cost of natural disasters, is borrowing a technique from the private sector and buying reinsurance. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which started purchasing reinsurance last year for the National Flood …

Study Finds Extreme Winter Weather Is Strongly Related to Arctic Warmth

In recent decades, extreme winter weather has become more strongly connected to disruptions in the polar vortex, according to a new study from Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), a Verisk business, and Rutgers University, published in Nature Communications. It revealed …

New York, Mumbai Basements Seen as Uninsurable by Next Decade

Private property below ground in New York and Mumbai may not be insurable in the next decade if climate change advances, the head of one of Europe’s largest insurers said. “If you go much further to 2020, 2030, we can …

U.S. Weather Disasters Totaled a Record $306B in 2017

Extreme weather took an extreme toll on the U.S. last year. Losses from weather and climate disasters including hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and wildfires in northern California reached a record $306 billion in 2017, the federal government’s National Centers …

15 U.S. Weather Disasters Costing a Billion Dollars or More so far in 2017

In the year that President Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris accord and downplayed global warming as a security threat, the U.S. received a harsh reminder of the perils of the rise in the planet’s temperature: a destructive rash …

Swiss Re: Natural Catastrophe Insured Losses Nearly Doubled in 2017

Preliminary sigma estimates for insured global losses resulting from natural and man-made disasters in 2017 are around $136 billion, well-above the annual average of the previous 10 years, and the third highest since sigma records began in 1970. Total economic …

New Mexico Enjoys Quiet After Series of Severe Storms This Year

The conditions proved to be just right this year in New Mexico for a wave of severe weather that prompted double the average number of warnings issued by forecasters in a typical year, but the flurry of activity seems to …

Employees May Soon Be Taking Climate Leave

Even the workplace has to adapt to the warming world. As climate change creates more intense storms, companies have started preparing for work disruptions due to extreme weather. In a sign of the times, Fog Creek, a software company based …

GAO Report Says Climate Change Already Costs U.S. Billions in Losses

A non-partisan federal watchdog says climate change is already costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars each year, with those costs expected to rise as devastating storms, floods, wildfires and droughts become more frequent in the coming decades. A Government Accountability …

Poll Finds Americans Blame Wild Weather on Global Warming

After hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria blitzed the nation, most Americans think weather disasters are getting more severe and see global warming’s fingerprints. A new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 68 percent of …