January 11, 2025 - Last year was a record-warm year for the U.S., as the nation was hit by numerous tornadoes and devastating hurricanes, according to scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
Here’s a recap of major climate and extreme weather events across the U.S. in 2024:
Climate by the numbers
2024
The average annual temperature across the contiguous U.S. was 55.5 degrees F — 3.5 degrees above the 20th-century average — ranking as the nation’s warmest year in NOAA’s 130-year climate record.
Seventeen states — Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin — had their warmest year on record.
Annual precipitation across the contiguous U.S. totaled 31.58 inches (1.66 inches above average), which placed 2024 in the wettest third of the climate record.
Precipitation was above average across portions of the West, central Rockies, Deep South, Upper Midwest, Great Lakes, Southeast and Northeast. Precipitation was below average across much of the Northern Rockies and Plains, parts of the Southwest and across portions of the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic region.
Billion-dollar disasters in 2024
The Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters update is a quantification of the weather and climate disasters totalling $1 billion in collective damages for each event. In 2024, the U.S. saw 27 of these events, which include:
- 17 severe storm events.
- Five tropical cyclones.
- Two winter storms.
- One flooding event.
- One drought/heat wave event.
- One wildfire event.
This ranks second highest for number of billion-dollar disasters in a calendar year, behind 2023’s 28 events. The U.S. cost for these disasters in 2024 was $182.7 billion, and was the fourth-highest price tag on record. This total annual cost may rise by several billion as additional costs from identified events are reported.
Since records began in 1980, the U.S. has sustained 403 separate weather and climate disasters where overall damages/costs reached or exceeded $1 billion — based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustment to 2024 — per event. The total cost of these 403 events exceeds $2.915 trillion.
Other notable climate and weather events in 2024
- A near-record tornado year: As of this writing, NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center continues to confirm the tornadoes that occurred during 2024; the current count is 1,735, which is the second-highest number of confirmed tornadoes on record (2004 had 1,817), and well above the 30-year (1991–2020) average of 1,225. Four EF-4 tornadoes were confirmed during 2024, and occurred in Elkhorn, Nebraska (April 26); Marietta, Oklahoma (April 27); Barnsdall, Oklahoma (May 6) and Greenfield, Iowa (May 21).
- A destructive Atlantic hurricane season: It was an active Atlantic hurricane season, with18 named tropical systems forming during 2024. Eleven of those storms were hurricanes (tied with 1995 for fifth highest on record), including five that intensified to major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher). Five of those 11 hurricanes made landfall in the U.S., which ties with 1893, 2004 and 2005 as the fourth-highest number of hurricanes to make landfall in the U.S. during a season. Those five hurricanes were Hurricanes Beryl, Debby, Francine, Helene and Milton. Hurricane Helene was the seventh-most-costly Atlantic hurricane on record.
- Wildfires burned millions of acres: The number of wildfires across the U.S.in 2024 was slightly below the 20-year average (2001–20), with more than 61,000 wildfires reported over the year. However, the total number of acres burned from these wildfires — 8.8 million acres — was 26% above the 20-year average. The Park Fire, the fourth-largest wildfire in California history, burned nearly 430,000 acres and destroyed over 600 structures.
Source: NOAA
