News - Blogs - Significant weather events this year already expensive

Significant weather events this year already expensive
Published: 8/25/2011 9:26 AM
Last Modified: 8/25/2011 9:48 AM

Two people walk up Sunset Drive near 32nd Street in Joplin on May 23. The tornado was the single-deadliest in more than 60 years. JEFF LAUTENBERGER/Tulsa World

Jimmy Powers fights to keep his mother's home from catching fire at 6232 N. Utica Pl. in Turley, Okla. Powers was working just a mile away when he saw the smoke and came over. The wildfire threatened the home up to the fence line, but firefighters seemed to control the blaze just in time. ADAM WISNESKI/Tulsa World

Youths play in flood waters from heavy rain, in front of a stranded school bus, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Monday, Aug. 22, 2011. An Iowa National Guard transport truck was used to rescue around 30 children from their stranded school bus in Council Bluffs after heavy rain overnight and Monday morning flooded some streets and basements in far western Iowa and eastern Nebraska. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

So, it may be obvious, but as we’ve said here before, 2011 has been quite an extreme year when it comes to weather.

As it turns out, extreme is also expensive.

In preliminary estimates from the National Climatic Data Center, there have been nine separate significant weather events that have caused at least $1 billion in damage this year. The total amount of damage from the tornadoes, droughts and floods (some of which are still ongoing) is estimated to be more than $35 billion.

The three billion-dollar disasters in 2010 caused only $6.8 billion in damage. The highest was 2005, thanks to $125 billion in damage from Hurricane Katrina alone.

The nine events this year tied a record set in 2008, and it’s only August and we still have the rest of hurricane season and the beginning of winter to get through.

Here are the nine billion-dollar disasters of 2011 (so far):

Flooding along the Missouri and Souris rivers this summer from above-average snowpacks and rainfall caused 11,000 evacuations in North Dakota and multiple levees to breach. Estimated losses exceed $2 billion in seven states for this ongoing event. Five deaths were reported from the flooding in Canada.

The Mississippi River also broke its banks this spring and summer. With 300 percent of normal precipitation in the Ohio Valley and melting snowpack, between $2 and $4 billion in damage was caused in at least four states. The floods led to two deaths.

Drought may not have the same immediate impact of an EF-5 tornado or floods, but the economic impact is deep and widespread. The droughts and wildfires of the southern plains and southwest in the spring and summer has caused about $5 billion in direct losses to agriculture, cattle and structures. In Oklahoma, 63 percent of range and pasture conditions are classified as “very poor.” It’s obvious, but this event is also ongoing with costs expected to soar.

The May 22-27 tornado outbreaks affected 15 states, with 180 tornadoes and 177 deaths. The largest impact from this outbreak was in Joplin, Mo., where an EF-5 resulted in 141 deaths—the deadliest single tornado strike in more than 60 years. The tornadoes caused more than $7 billion in damage.

An estimated 305 tornadoes were recorded during a 13-state outbreak between April 25 and April 30. Those tornadoes caused 327 deaths, with 204 occurring in Alabama. An EF-5 in northern Alabama killed 78. The costliest event this year, losses are estimated at $9 billion.

Ten states were affected by the April 14-16 tornado outbreak, with 160 tornadoes touching down, all EF-3 or below in the south and Midwest. The storms caused 38 deaths and had losses greater than $2 billion.

Nearly 60 tornadoes between April 8 and 11 affected nine states in the south and Midwest. No deaths were reported, but $2.2 billion in damage was reported.

Nine deaths were reported in the April 4 and 5 outbreak of 46 tornadoes in 10 states that caused $2.3 billion in damage. This outbreak was the only one of those listed above that did not affect Oklahoma.

But this event did: The Groundhog Day Blizzard of Jan. 29 through Feb. 3, which brought Tulsa and many other central U.S. cities to a standstill. Tulsa had 13.2 inches of snow fall in a day, setting a record. For the month of February, 22.5 inches of snow was recorded here. The storm caused losses greater than $2 billion and led to 36 deaths.

As Hurricane Irene makes its way toward the East Coast (even though it will likely only brush much of it and make landfall as a significantly weaker storm), and considering the extreme trend this year, the amount will surely rise before we make it to 2012. And let’s hope for a little more calm--and just enough rain--next year.

--Jerry Wofford

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Almanac

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

	Temperature		Precipitation
Date	High Temp	Low Temp	Total	Month to date	Historical average
1	44°	16°	0	0.00	0.05
2	59°	24°	0	0.00	0.11
3	57°	33°	0	0.00	0.16
4	68°	37°	Trace	0.00	0.21
5	69°	29°	0	0.00	0.26
6	66°	33°	0	0.00	0.32
7	59°	38°	0.05	0.05	0.38
8	51°	34°	0	0.05	0.44
9	44°	36°	0.01	0.06	0.51
10	62°	37°	0.07	0.13	0.57
11	54°	28°	0	0.13	0.64
12	44°	30°	0.25	0.38	0.70
13	55°	40°	0.01	0.39	0.76
14	°	°			0.83
15	°	°			0.89
16	°	°			0.95
17	°	°			1.02
18	°	°			1.09
19	°	°			1.16
20	°	°			1.23
21	°	°			1.31
22	°	°			1.38
23	°	°			1.46
24	°	°			1.53
25	°	°			1.61
26	°	°			1.69
27	°	°			1.77
28	°	°			1.85

TEMPERATURE

RAINFALL

SNOWFALL

Weather World

Follow Jerry Wofford on Twitter for updates during severe weather conditions.

Tulsa weather milestones of 2013 (as of Feb. 12)

Highest temperature: 70 on Jan. 11 (Record: 115 on Aug. 15, 1936)
Lowest temperature: 15 on Jan. 16 (Record: Minus-16 on Jan. 22, 1930)
Hottest month (average): 40.5 degrees in January (Record: 91.7 degrees on July 1980)
Coldest month (average): 40. 5 degrees in January (Record: 21.7 in January 1918)
Most snowfall (day): 0.1 of an inch on Feb. 12(Record: 13.2 inches on Feb. 1, 2011)
Most snowfall (month): 0.1 of an inch in February(Record: 22.5 inches in February 2011)
Most rainfall (day): 0.91 of an inch on Jan. 29 (Record: 9.27 inches on May 26-27, 1984)
Most rainfall (month): 1.54 of an inch in January (Record: 18.18 inches on September 1971)
Highest wind speed: 30 mph on Jan. 30
Previous day with any rain: Feb. 12
Previous day with 1 inch or more of rain: Oct. 17, 2012
Previous day with any snow: Feb. 12
Previous day with freezing temperatures: Feb. 12
Read regular updates on Oklahoma's unpredictable weather and learn more about meteorology from the Tulsa office of the National Weather Service.

>> Visit the main weather page
>> Send us your weather photos
>> Meet the forecasters

Contributors
Staff Writer Althea Peterson started writing for the Tulsa World in March 2007 after previous stops at the Norman Transcript in 2006 and the Oklahoma Gazette in 2005. She followed her older brother from rural Wisconsin (with a public school that never seemed to call snow days) to the University of Oklahoma, but did not follow his pursuit to study meteorology. However, she tries to find as many opportunities to report on the weather as possible.

Staff Writer Jerry Wofford came to the Tulsa World in 2010 from The Manhattan Mercury in Manhattan, Kan. Originally from western Arkansas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Jerry has lived in Tornado Alley his entire life and is one of those people who goes outside when the sirens go off.

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