
"Billion-dollar weather and climate disasters broke U.S. record in 2023, NOAA says," reported PBS earlier this year. "NOAA: US sees record number of billion-dollar weather, climate disasters in 2023," observed Fox Weather. "U.S. Hit by Record Number of High-Cost Disasters in 2023," declared The New York Times.
These and many more headlines were based on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) January press release reporting the agency's annual tally of weather disasters. It states: