United States takes 69% of overall world weather damage for 2012!

Well, I knew it was a rough year but I hadn't appreciated quite how rough or lopsided for impact it had been.

Since 1980, geophysical events -- such as earthquakes and volcano eruptions -- have been more or less stable, while weather-related events -- including storms, floods, heat waves and drought -- have grown more than threefold. The United States, in particular, was seriously affected by weather extremes in 2012, accounting for 69 percent of total global disaster losses, a report showed.

Now that is a painful stat to have to endure. Some areas quite close to me have been among those to add to that total, unfortunately. Of course, this focuses on dollars and bean counting methods of measure. Nothing entirely captures the human cost. The money is the next best thing to gauge trends by though, so in money they measure.

According to a new report by risk management group Munich Re, 2012 saw 905 natural catastrophes worldwide, pushing total disaster-related losses to $170 billion. While global loss was "moderate" -- compared with 2011's record $380 billion -- it represented the second-costliest year for the United States, after 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit.

Tornados, Hurricanes, Flooding and all sorts of bad tidings brought on the winds. Indeed. That summed up 2012 fairly well. All the while, another killer sat quietly taking it's toll and adding it's numbers to the ugly pile of statistics.

For the top 15 crop insurance companies in the United States -- such as Wells Fargo, QBE, ACE, American Financial Group and Endurance -- 2012 was the first time in a decade that crop insurance was a money loser, according to a Reuters report.

The drought alone cost the country more than $20 billion.

Source

Here is a look at what they meant by drought...and this comes from November of 2012. Winter.



I suppose it's very important to recall that while politics and those who live there are the bane of our existence at the moment, we're also in a period of heightened weather activity very similar to another cycle seen in the 1950's. If it all runs true and through previous patterns, we haven't seen the end yet.

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By the way, headlines breaking a short time ago declared 68 Mph straight line winds across Eastern Oklahoma this morning and I can say, in Southern Missouri? The air feels charged in the way it often does in the period before storms. Perhaps it'll pass us again....perhaps not.

Either way, everyone please stay safe and watch yourselves out there, wherever in the world you are. Weather is a serious thing and a deadly one far too often, when the really active cycles come around to call again.

Well, a lot of Bavaria and Saxonia are flooded right now.. Pics

Just bad luck, as the weather knows no bad men.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I guess God is very unhappy with the US this days.

BTW I am just been sarcastic here

Well to be fair the U.S. has more to be destroyed. If the same F5 tornado that hit Oklahoma rips through Mexico or South America it doesn't do nearly the dollar amount of damage. Drought in Africa hurts many people but doesn't cause much damage in dollars.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
I suppose it's very important to recall that while politics and those who live there are the bane of our existence at the moment, we're also in a period of heightened weather activity very similar to another cycle seen in the 1950's. If it all runs true and through previous patterns, we haven't seen the end yet.

I think the general consensus is that we likely won't see an end to the wild weather any time soon, e.g.:

Researchers at the AAAS Annual Meeting said that wild weather events like Superstorm Sandy and the severe Texas drought are the new normal in North America, as human-driven climate change has made these events more intense and more frequent.

Consider these facts:

• In the 1950s, the number of days that set record high temperatures in the U.S. was equal to the number of days that set record low temperatures. By the 2000s, record highs were twice as likely as record low.

• The amount of precipitation falling in the heaviest rain and snow events in the United States has increased by nearly 20% since the 1950s.

• Since the 1970s, the Atlantic Ocean has seen substantial increases in nearly every measure of hurricane activity, from frequency to storm intensity.

www.aaas.org...

So, hold on to your hats, as they say...

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I can't believe that no one has mentioned anything about HAARP yet. I thought this was a conspiracy theory website?!

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Maybe the UN should declare US a disaster zone and start sending us our money back.

It's only fair!

reply to post by seabag


Somehow, I don't see that suggestion getting far at the UN building. If you suddenly hear the roar of distant laughter? I think that'll be coming from New York after someone mentioned it in passing.

I don't necessarily disagree that we've been in a position more than once here recently where we could have used some help ourselves.

....I still think the UN building could be put to much better use. Perhaps, given this, it could be the center for a new National Weather Service with expanded budgets, not cutting them on an annual basis. As the weather gets worse, the resources to predict and handle it shrink. Kinda crazy, huh?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I don’t think we need UN help. I’m simply looking for an excuse to take back some of the wasted tax payer money they’ve taken from us.

As far as the weather, this year has definitely been worse than 2012 in my area. After a second REALLY CLOSE call I’ve actually decided to invest in a storm shelter. I’m not going to be able to do it right away (it’s expensive and there is a wait right now) but hopefully I will have one before next spring. I live in North Texas in tornado alley @ 40 miles south of Oklahoma. I never thought I’d be investing in one but there has been so much activity in the area lately that it really makes sense to me now. The thought of taking a direct hit from one of those bad boys isn’t very appealing.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Here's something to worry about, but for some reason it always ends in a debate of whether it's man made are natural.I don't see how that's relevant it's bad no matter the reason we should be thinking of the future instead of argueing semantics.

There was a thread on the Arctic ice being gone by as soon as 2015 have you seen anything in your internet wondering that supports that? That seems a bit fast to me, and I don't even want to think of what that would do to the weather.

Sorry, who had the worst weather disaster in 2012?

www.bbc.co.uk...

It's not all about money

reply to post by seabag


Actually that is no going to happen because US as usual have plenty of people with big harts and have no problem giving away money to help with disaster victims.

Just look at one of the biggest names within the country music business and one of the sponsor of the Voice an Oklahoma native, Blake, he and Usher with a special concert for the victims of Oklahoma disaster were able to collect 6 million dollars in just a few hours of music.

What that tells, it says that in the US we take care of our own and still have money to take care of others, (something that I disagree), but still commendable.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Well, US and its corporations also play significant part in the pollution process.

Who knows, maybe Mother Earth is trying to send some message?

Although we can say that most of US damage is financial only, luckily. Disasters in other regions usually have much more victims.

We build more and report more, so it is a pretty skewed statistic.