Stormy start to 2017 ties for second- most disasters

Dozens of savage hailstorms and tornadoes have wreaked havoc across the U. S. this year, causing billions of dollars of damage and leading to the secondmost disaster- laden season on record.

So far in 2017, the U. S. has endured 49 separate weather, climate and flood disasters, according to data from Munich Re, a global reinsurance firm.

That’s tied with 2009 as the second- highest January- June number on record. Only 2012, with 59 events, had more.

Munich Re data go back to 1980.

Ferocious hailstorms that battered Denver ( in May) and Dallas ( in March) were among the top costliest U. S. disasters, according to Munich Re meteorologist Mark Bove. This isn’t necessarily unusual, he said. “In an average year, hail causes more losses than tornadoes.”

At more than $ 2.1 billion in damage, the Denver hailstorm likely was the city’s costliest on record.

The number of events also is more than the 10- year average of 45. According to Munich Re, a disaster is defined as an event that causes at least one death and/ or causes $ 3 million in damage. The firm also calls them “loss events.”

Fortunately, the high number doesn’t translate into an unusually high damage cost: As for the overall cost of the USA’s disasters this year, Munich Re estimates a total of $ 21 billion, of which $ 14.2 billion was insured. “That’s fairly close to average for the past decade,” Bove said.

Several of the severe weather events hit sparsely populated areas without much exposed value. “The unusual atmospheric conditions in the USA in the first half of 2017 provided the perfect conditions for powerful supercell thunderstorms, which invariably bring major hailstorms and tornadoes,” said Peter Höppe, head of Munich Re’s Geo Risks Research.

“The number of tornadoes observed in the first quarter of 2017 was twice as high as the average for the last 10 years,” he said.

Through the end of June, tornadoes have killed 34 Americans, which is just less than half the typical yearly fatality toll, the Storm Prediction Center said.

The high number of severe thunderstorms in the U. S., especially from January to March, was likely influenced by abnormally warm water in the eastern Pacific Ocean off the northwest coast of South America. This warm Pacific ocean water affects weather patterns around the world.

This “coastal El Niño” — instead of the more common central Pacific El Niño — was a “real unusual event,” Bove said. It also fueled the world’s costliest event so far in 2017: Deadly flooding in Peru that killed 158 people and caused $ 3.1 billion in damage.

Cyclone Debbie, which hit the Queensland coast of Australia in late March, was the second- most expensive natural catastrophe of 2017 so far, with overall losses estimated at $ 2.7 billion.

As for a connection to global warming, “there are now many indications that certain events — such as persistent weather systems or storms bringing torrential rain and hail — are more likely to occur in certain regions as a result of climate change,” Höppe said this year.

The next threat for natural disasters may come from the tropics: Looking to the weeks and months ahead, Bove warns that the U. S. is about to enter the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. “More than 80% of hurricanes occur after July 31,” he said.

Last year, Hurricane Matthew’s rampage through the Caribbean and U. S. cost $ 10.2 billion.

“The number of tornadoes observed in the first quarter of 2017 was twice as high as the average for the last 10 years.” Peter Höppe, Munich Re’s Geo Risks Research