Significant staff reductions implemented by the Trump administration at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) led to the discontinuation of several climate-focused initiatives on Thursday.
Among the most notable changes, NOAA announced the closure of its “billion-dollar weather and climate disasters” database, citing unspecified reasons. This database, operational since 1980, has been essential in tracking the escalating costs associated with the nation’s most severe weather events, consolidating various sources of private data that have historically been difficult for the public to access.
Over the years, 403 weather and climate disasters in the United States have incurred costs exceeding $2.945 trillion, a figure that NOAA describes as a conservative estimate. CNN recently reported that the country has seen an average increase in the number of disasters over the past five years, from nine annually to 24. The database’s closure could hinder communities’ awareness of the financial implications posed by emerging threats, with NOAA suggesting that historical data would remain the primary means for monitoring trends.
NOAA stated, “In alignment with evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing changes, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) will no longer be updating the Billion Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters product.” While the agency indicated that all historical reports from 1980 to 2024, along with their underlying data, would continue to be archived and available, it was made clear that no new data would be collected for 2025 or subsequent years.
As noted in NCEI’s FAQ, every state has endured at least one billion-dollar disaster since 1980, with Texas experiencing more than 100 such events. The Central, South, and Southeast regions of the U.S. are expected to be disproportionately affected by the loss of this data, since these areas “typically experience a higher frequency of billion-dollar disasters,” according to the same FAQ.
