With hurricanes, wildfires, flooding, tornadoes and drought, America hit a record high bill last year for weather disasters: $306 billion.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday that the U.S. had 16 billion-dollar disasters last year. That ties 2011 for the number of billion-dollar disasters.
2017 saw the highest cost of damage from natural disasters as previous costliest year for the U.S. was 2005 with losses of $215 billion driven in large part by Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita.
NOAA said Hurricane Harvey cost $125 billion, second only to 2005's Katrina, while Maria cost $90 billion, ranking third. Irma was $50 billion.
Last year, the western wildfire season — which ravaged large parts of California — cost $18 billion, "tripling the previous U.S. annual wildfire cost record," the report said.
The weather agency also said that 2017 was the third hottest year in U.S. records with an annual temperature of 54.6 degrees (12.6 degrees Celsius). Only 2012 and 2016 were warmer. Records go back to 1895.
