Today, the 21st, is the Final Day of Severe Weather Awareness Week, and it highlights: Severe Weather Impacts.
2025 saw approximately 115 FEMA declared disasters, of those 23 were deemed billion-dollar disasters for the United States alone. 2024 saw 90 FEMA declared disasters, with 27 of those considered billion-dollar disasters.
That’s a very frequent number of storms, and unfortunately research is showing that storms and their frequencies in the U.S. have risen significantly, with billion-dollar disaster events increasing from an average of 9 per year (1980-2019) to 23 per year in the last five years (2020-2024). Roughly 10,000 of the 100,000 annual thunderstorms are classified as severe, with a trend towards more intense, costly events.
Now is the time to prepare for the next event. Know your area’s risks, build your kits, and make your plans. Don’t think it can’t happen here, our history shows it does, and changing weather and storm frequencies prove it is only a matter of time before our next one. Use the tips and information we have shared this week to prepare, or even critique your kits. The most important thing to remember is to make your preparedness plans before the storm, and make them to fit your and your family’s needs.
