Before we race, and I mean
race into the new year,
let's take a look back at the
year that was Caitlin is back to
talk about the most expensive
weather disasters from 2021,
and it's extraordinary. Caitlin
it really is Mike,
almost the entire country was
in some way impacted by natural
disasters in the past year from
unprecedented heat to prolonged record.
Cold wildfires, hurricanes,
and tornado outbreaks, just to name a few.
They all left their mark in 2021.
The year got off to a very cold
start for parts of the country.
A historic February cold snap left
millions of Texans without electricity
or heat for days after a power
grid failure linked to the record,
cold temperatures bottomed out
on the morning of February 16th
at 20 degrees in Galveston,
13 degrees in Houston and just five
degrees in College Station, TX.
More than 170 people died from
extreme cold to severe heat late.
June featured the biggest heat story
of the year when Portland OR hit 116
degrees and Seattle WA reached 108 degrees.
Hundreds of deaths were blamed on the
heat throughout the Pacific Northwest
and up through British Columbia.
Not only was this summer a hot one,
it was a dry one.
In fact,
the past several summers have
featured near record dry conditions,
but this summer was one for the books.
95% of the Western United States
experienced a moderate to severe drought.
It's likely the worst drought
for the region in centuries.
And with the dry conditions came
the largest single wildfire
in California history.
The Dixie Fire,
severe drought and poor forest
management allowed the fire to
explode more than 960,000 acres
burned in the devastating wildfire
that began on July 13th and wasn't
100% contained until October 25th.
From 2 little rain to too much rain.
Category 4 Ida produced unprecedented
rainfall and record wind.
The historic storm brought wind
speeds of 150 mph when it made
landfall in Louisiana on August 29th,
the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina,
the storm caused 10s of billions of
dollars in damage and killed dozens of
people across the central Gulf Coast.
The storm continued to wreak havoc
as it traveled northeast through the
Mid Atlantic produce Indianapolis.
Tornado that touched down September 1st.
The tornado tracked 11.25 miles from
near Shady side to just north of Annapolis.
The tornado was on the ground for
23 minutes and it was rated at TF2
with 125 mile per hour winds and
while not unheard of a tornado
that strong in the Mid Atlantic,
is hardly normal.
The damage from Ida didn't stop there.
The tropical moisture led to
record setting rainfall rates in
the Northeast Newark registered
3.24 inches of rain in just one.
Our Central Park picked up 3.15
inches of rain in an hour as well.
The floodwaters left many New
York residents trapped in flooded
basement apartments.
At least 49 people were killed
throughout New York and New Jersey
to round out our top weather
disasters of the year beginning
the night of December 10th and
unprecedented tornado outbreak began.
What you're looking at here
is a satellite image taken at
11:46 PM Central Standard Time
showing the line of storms
stretching from Texas all
the way up through Michigan.
So far the National Weather Service
has confirmed 66 tornadoes and
outbreak of this magnitude would
be incredible any time of year.
But the fact that it was in December
rather than the summer or spring when
tornadoes are more likely is remarkable.
The most devastating tornado that
night tore through Western Kentucky.
The long track tornado was on the ground
for 128 miles with peak winds of 190 mph.
The tornado was rated an F4,
but it's not out of the question
that it could be upgraded to A5.
As the damage continues to be surveyed.
And another billion dollar disaster is
still unfolding as we bring in the new year.
The unprecedented wildfires
burning in Colorado.
And it's worth noting that the only
year with more billion dollar disasters
than this year was last year when
$22 billion disasters were recorded.