INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has just updated the running count of billion-dollar disasters in 2023.

In the United States, there have been 23 separate billion-dollar disasters through the end of August.

With events in prior years’ CPI adjusted to account for the change in the value of the dollar, 2023 has had the most billion-dollar disasters since NOAA started records in 1980. For reference, 2020 had the previous record of 22 different billion-dollar disasters in the entire year. Keep in mind, we still have four more months in 2023 that could add to this total.

The 23 separate disasters have totaled $57.6 billion in damages. Unfortunately, 253 lives have been lost directly and indirectly from these disasters.

Events involving Indiana

Obviously, there are some events that have gripped our state more than others. The most notable event Indiana has seen in 2023 was the devastating tornado outbreak on March 31 – April 1 that produced 23 tornadoes in the state. Many states saw a large amount of tornadoes within that same outbreak.

A derecho swept through multiple states on June 29. This line of storms produced a 70 mph wind gust in Indianapolis.

Northern Indiana was clipped by a line of strong storms on July 20 that produced a large amount of storm reports in states to the east of Indiana. Multiple hail reports exceeded 2 inches between South Bend and Elkhart in this event.

Finally, two rounds of storms on July 28 and July 29 impacted most of the states in the Midwest. 5 tornadoes were recorded in Indiana on these days.

August events added

August 2023 produced 4 separate billion-dollar disasters in the U.S. These events consisted of:

• Hurricane Idalia which made landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida (August 29 to August 31)
• Fires in Hawaii (August 8)
• Minnesota hail storms (August 11)
• East Coast severe weather (August 5 to August 8)