The United States was hit by 15 climate disasters in the first half of this year, each with losses exceeding one billion dollars. According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which is the country’s premier meteorological agency in a report released this week, the disasters consisted of 13 severe storm events and two winter storms. 

Winter storms swept through the US Midwest and around the Great Lakes in January. Nearly 30 million people in the Midwest and around the Great Lakes were under a winter storm warning in early January, leaving thousands without power and leading to nearly a thousand flight and train cancellations. Powerful storms slammed the US West Coast in February. 

Severe storms battered the US South in April, stretching from Texas to Florida. In May, storms hit Iowa, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kentucky, killing more than 20 people and leaving numbers in the aftermath. A tornado hit Michigan ripping through suburban Detroit in early June injuring at least 13. The United States has sustained 391 weather and climate disasters since 1980, each causing damage of at least one billion dollars. According to NOAA data, the total cost till now tops 2.7 trillion dollars.