March 5th warmest month in US.. $1 bn cost of climate disasters

13 / 04 / 2024

By Marwa Nassar - -

March was recorded to be the 5th-warmest month in the US and the 10th-wettest year so far. One new billion-dollar weather and climate disaster was confirmed in March 2024 after a severe tornado event impacted the central and southern U.S. from March 13–15, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) of the US’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The US has sustained 378 separate weather and climate disasters since 1980 where overall damages/costs reached or exceeded $1 billion (including CPI adjustment to 2024). The total cost of these 378 events exceeds $2.690 trillion.

March 2024 brought wild weather across the US, as storms pounded parts of the nation and record-setting wildfires scorched more than a million acres.

The average monthly temperature across the contiguous US was 45.1 degrees F (3.6 degrees above the 20th-century average), which ranked as the 17th-warmest March in the climate record.

In mid-March, the US was racked by devastating severe thunderstorms that brought baseball-sized hail and more than 20 tornadoes to portions of the Midwest, resulting in significant damage and loss of life.

A 5.25-inch diameter hail stone fell in Ada, Oklahoma, on March 14, which was the largest stone reported in Pontotoc County since 1950 — as well as the largest hail to fall in the state in nearly 13 years.

A state of emergency was declared for Ohio as several tornadoes struck the state on March 14, resulting in three fatalities when an EF-3 tornado crossed Auglaize and Logan counties.

Five wildfires, including the Smokehouse Creek wildfire, were finally contained in the Texas Panhandle, the largest cattle-producing region in the world. The wildfires burned approximately 1.1 million acres, destroyed hundreds of structures, ruined hundreds of miles of fencing and killed more than 7,000 cattle.