The year 2019 was remarkable in a number of ways climatologically. One way is the number of billion-dollar weather disasters that occurred. There were 14 different disasters that racked up such high dollar totals, including 3 flooding events, 8 severe storm events, 2 tropical cyclone events, and 1 wildfire event. Nearly half of the loss was due to the three flooding events in the central US. Overall, these events resulted in the deaths of 44 people and had significant economic effects on the areas impacted. While the long-term average from 1980-2019 is 6.5 events per year, the average for the last five years is 13.8 events. You can read more at https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/.
