Additional Coverage:
Climate Central Resurrects Vital “Billion-Dollar Disaster” Dataset
[City, State] – A crucial tool for understanding the financial toll of extreme weather and climate change has been brought back from the brink. Climate Central, a non-profit research organization, announced Monday the revival of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) “billion-dollar disaster” dataset, which had been shut down by the Trump administration in May.
This vital dataset, which quantifies the economic impact of major weather and climate events, is now being managed by the very scientist who oversaw it at NOAA, Adam Smith. Smith, now Climate Central’s Senior Climate Impacts Scientist, emphasized the dataset’s importance in demonstrating the real-world consequences of climate change to communities and various sectors.
“The billion-dollar disaster analysis is vital in demonstrating the economic impact of extreme weather and climate events, which helps communities understand the real-world consequences of climate change and the increasing impact of these different events,” Smith stated. He added, “This dataset was simply too important to stop being updated. We’ve seen a widespread demand for its revival from many aspects of society and industry, including the private sector, academia, local community decision makers, even Congress.”
For decades, the NOAA dataset provided invaluable information to first responders, the insurance industry, and researchers, aiding in planning, recovery operations, and assessments. Its closure made it difficult for the public and experts to track the impact of major disasters, as it combined private and public data, some of which was not readily available outside of government channels.
Climate Central has successfully replicated all the original data sources and partnerships, ensuring the continuity and accuracy of the dataset. Since the NOAA site was taken offline, Climate Central has already recorded 14 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the United States, with estimated total damages exceeding $101 billion.
Among these events, the Los Angeles wildfires in January were identified as the costliest disaster of 2025 and the most expensive wildfire on record, incurring over $60 billion in damages-nearly double the previous record. Smith highlighted that such data “helps deliver the fact that climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of some types of extreme events leading to more damages.”
This news follows another significant development in climate information accessibility: the relaunch of climate.gov as climate.us by its former team and several non-profits. Climate.us now hosts the Fifth National Climate Assessment, a comprehensive report on climate change impacts in the U.S., which had also been removed by the Trump administration.
Climate Central confirmed that its disaster dataset employs the same peer-reviewed methodologies as the NOAA version and will be regularly updated, with plans for future expansion. The long-term trend underscores the growing financial burden of climate change.
“Over the last 10 years, a conservative view of this analysis, these billion-dollar disasters alone have contributed more than $1.5 trillion in total direct losses,” Smith noted. He cautioned that even this figure is a conservative estimate, as it doesn’t quantify impacts such as environmental degradation, mental and physical healthcare costs following disasters, or the ripple effects on supply chains.