Buehner: Eliminating NOAA’s billion-dollar disasters database leaves Americans in the dark

On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that the billion-dollar weather and climate disasters database will be retired. This directive came from the White House and reflects the ongoing effort to end all climate-related programs and services, including those conducted by NOAA.

Is this an effort to “hide” critical information from the public about the impacts of our warming planet? It sure looks like it. This database archives major storms that have impacted the country, including floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and tornadoes.

Going back to 1980, this database reflects a growing number of costly major weather-related disasters. Since 1980, there have been slightly more than 400 $1 billion disasters in the U.S., totaling nearly $3 trillion in damages.

Weather disasters this decade

In just this decade, 2020 had 22 billion-dollar disasters, 2021 had 20, 2022 suffered 18 of them, 2023 had the most ever with 28, and last year, there were 27 such disasters, including Hurricanes Helene and Milton that alone are currently estimated at costing more than $50 billion in damages.

This year, there are four such billion-dollar disasters, including the January Los Angeles wildfires, that will go into the 2025 part of the database. The current estimate of that disaster is now between $250 and $275 billion. However, according to the NOAA announcement and the database being retired, this major disaster will not be a part of the database, along with any future weather-related disasters.

Why is this billion-dollar weather and climate disaster database being sidelined?

This administration does not want American citizens to know about the growing cost of these disasters and their impacts.

There are ongoing research studies outside of NOAA that, thus far, have not yet concluded that any major weather-related disaster was “directly” caused by our warming planet. So this database does not offer any threat to the administration’s effort to eliminate anything “climate-related,” but the public has a right to know what these disasters cost and how many there are.

The billion-dollar disaster database is unique and cannot easily be replicated. Much of the disaster cost data involves non-public information, such as from insurers who keep their data, techniques, and sources close to the vest, but have shared it with NOAA for this database in the public’s best interest. Now, the public will be kept in the dark about the actual costs and number of future major weather-related disasters.

To top it off, the White House has plans to cut more out of NOAA within the next year. Those cuts include closing the weather and climate labs and eliminating its research division. The work these small, but quite important, groups do includes updates to the Doppler weather radar network across the nation, further enhancement of weather satellite technology, and additional improvements to weather forecast model guidance.

These cuts to NOAA are going to have adverse impacts on future public safety—it’s inevitable. And hiding the costs of the growing number of major weather-related disasters is simply wrong and deceitful.

Ted Buehner is the KIRO Newsradio meteorologist. Follow him on X and Bluesky. Read more of his stories here.