The increase of severe weather events is having an adverse impact on public health, safety and the economy, according to data compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The data reveals that all 50 states had experienced record-breaking severe weather events in the first 10 months of 2011, including extreme droughts, violent rain and snowstorms, dangerously high temperatures and floods.
In addition, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has launched a program to connect state and city health and emergency officials with climate scientists to plan for diseases caused by rising temperatures. A warmer atmosphere means record increases in snow and rainfall. Extreme rainfall has already caused a number of deaths and illnesses through waterborne parasites and diseases.
Preparedness analysis and planning take place on the national and state level. It turns into action on the local level.
The NOAA data also raised concerns about the economic effects of the increasing number of severe weather events. The agency tracked more than a dozen events in the first 10 months of 2011 that caused more than $1 billion in damages. The total cost was $52 billion. There was only one event per year that cost more than a billion dollars in the entire 1980s, four per year in the 1990s and five per year in the past decade.
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