"The staggering tally comes with four months of the year still remaining."
"New government data released Monday revealed that the U.S. has already experienced more billion-dollar weather disasters in 2023 than in any other year since authorities started tracking such data 40-plus years ago.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tallied 23 weather events from January through August that cost at least $1 billion, topping the previous record of 22 set in all of 2020. The NOAA has been tracking these figures since 1980.
These events “caused 253 direct and indirect fatalities and produced more than $57.6 billion in damages,” the NOAA said in its report, noting that the number may rise as more events are taken into account."