(CNN) 2020 will be remembered for many unpleasant reasons -- the global pandemic, political unrest, sky-high unemployment -- and now we can add a record number of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters to the list.
An astonishing 22 separate weather and climate disasters costing over $1 billion each
occurred in the US in 2020, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Friday.
This shatters the annual record of 16 costly disasters in both 2011 and
2017.
"This is the sixth year in a row that the US has experienced 10 or more separate billion-dollar disasters," NOAA climatologist Adam Smith told
CNN Weather. Ten disasters has become the more recent standard of what to expect in a year, he added.
"To more than double (the number of events) at 22 and then have six more than the previous record is pretty extreme," Smith said.
Making up this costly list are a record-setting
seven tropical cyclone events and
13 severe storm events, along with a
drought and
a wildfire event.
The cost of disasters is estimated using data from insured and uninsured losses and covers the private and public sectors.
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