The Trump administration’s sudden staff cut at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which caused the closure of several climate-related programs on Thursday.
Perhaps most notable is NOAA. announcement It will shut down the “Billion-dollar Weather and Climate Disaster” database for vague reasons. Since 1980, the database has been critically pooling a variety of private data sources that are difficult to access by the public for a long time, allowing it to track the rising costs of the most devastating weather phenomenon in the country.
Meanwhile, 403 weather and climate disasters in the US have caused more than $2.945 trillion in costs. Note That’s a conservative estimate. Considering CNN It’s attracting attention The average number of disasters over the past five years jumps from nine years a year to 24, and shutting down the database could leave communities in the dark at the cost of new threats. What NOAA probably can say is to keep looking at historical data to keep up with trends.
“In line with evolving priorities, statutory obligations and staffing changes, NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI) will no longer update its $1 billion weather and climate disaster products,” NOAA announced. “From 1980 to 2024, all past reports, and their underlying data, are authoritative and archived; Available“NoAA said, but no data will be collected in 2025 or the following year.
According to NCEI FAQsince 1980, all states have experienced at least $1 billion in disasters, while some states, like Texas, have hit more than 100. The central, south and southeastern regions of the United States are most likely to be hurt by data loss.
