Extreme weather events of 2011
By Jeff Masters
30 December 2011 A remarkable blitz of extreme weather events during 2011 caused a total of 32 weather disasters costing at least $1 billion worldwide. Five nations experienced their most expensive weather-related natural disasters on record during 2011 – Thailand, Australia, Colombia, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia. According to insurance broker AON Benfield’s November Catastrophe Report, the U.S. was hit by no less than seventeen punishing multi-billion dollar extreme weather disasters in 2011; NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center official total is lower – twelve – but is likely to grow in number as additional damage statistics are tallied. Brazil experienced its deadliest weather-related natural disaster – a flash flood that killed 902 people in January, and the Philippines had its second deadliest flood ever, when Tropical Storm Washi killed over 1200 people in December. It was difficult to pick a top ten list of top weather events of 2011 from this bewildering list of candidates, and I cheated a bit by giving a tie for tenth place, so that eleven events would make the list. My list of top weather events were chosen based on their impact to society and meteorological significance. Damage estimates and death tolls for the 2011 disasters were mostly taken from AON Benfield’s November Catastrophe Report, and records for damages and death tolls from disasters in previous years was taken from the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED.) Here, then, is this year’s top ten list. I’ve included links to some of my blogs posts made at the time of the disaster. 1. East Africa drought and famine: over 30,000 dead The deadliest weather disaster of 2011 was a quiet one that got few headlines – the East African drought in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. On July 20, the United Nations officially declared famine in two regions of southern Somalia, the first time a famine has been declared by the UN in nearly thirty years. Almost 30,000 children under the age of five were believed to have died of malnutrition in Somalia this summer, and the total death toll of this great drought is doubtless much higher. East Africa has two rainy seasons–a main “long rains” of March-June, and the “short rains” of October-November. The “short rains” failed in the fall of 2010, and when the main “long rains” in spring 2011 also failed, it brought one of the worst droughts in recorded history. The 2010-2011 drought was rated along with the droughts of 1983-1984 and 1999-2000 as one of the three most significant droughts of the past 60 years. It was the driest 12-month period on record at some locations in East Africa. Damage assessments from the drought are not yet available, but it would not be a surprise if the drought of 2011 was the costliest weather-related natural disaster on record for Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. December 20 post: Deadliest weather disaster of 2011: the East African drought […]
Top ten global weather events of 2011 
December 31 (Skeptical Science) – Dramatic events grab headlines, and in the 2011 weather & climate sections of newspapers we’ve seen walls of fire burn across the American south, heartbreaking stories of Texan farmers losing their livelihoods to a record-breaking one year drought combined with record-breaking heat, tragedy across the midwest as a super active tornado season tore apart towns and massive flooding across the eastern states as record-breaking snowmelt combined with storms pounding the coast. The US grabbed most of the news thanks to a record-breaking number of billion dollar weather disasters, but there have been weather & climate tragedies elsewhere: East African drought has caused the first UN announced famine in Africa in 30 years, heavy floods in Thailand have caused politicians there to suggest moving the capital (as well as rising seas, Bangkok is sinking into the ground) and scientists from Environment Canada have said that for the first year recorded, it was not a white Christmas for most Canadians. […]
