Study says Extreme Weather Events Hitting North America the Hardest
A new study by Munich Re shows that North America has been most affected by weather-related extreme events in recent decades. The publication “Severe Weather in North America” analyzes weather perils and their trends. It reports and shows that the continent has experienced the largest increases in weather-related loss events.
For 1980 to 2011 the overall loss burden from weather catastrophes was $1,060 billion (in 2011 values), the report says.The insured losses amounted to $510 billion, and some 30,000 people lost their lives due to weather catastrophes in North America during this time frame. With $62.2 billion insured losses and overall losses of $125 billion (in original values) Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was the costliest event ever recorded in the US. Katrina was also the deadliest single storm event, claiming 1,322 lives.