Senate Democrats want to revive a NOAA database that tracked billion-dollar natural disasters
Source: NBC News
Sept. 17, 2025, 1:24 PM EDT / Updated Sept. 17, 2025, 4:32 PM EDT
Senate Democrats are seeking to revive a database that had tracked billion-dollar climate and weather disasters for decades, until it was retired by the Trump administration this May.
NOAA had kept a database of disasters that exceeded $1 billion in damage in the U.S. since 1980, but the agency halted the project this spring, as the Trump administration cut back climate science research at government agencies.
The database, and annual reports drawn from it, offered useful illustrations of how climate change is shifting patterns of extreme weather at the same time people are increasingly moving into areas prone to disasters like flooding and wildfires. The reports were used by lawmakers in disaster funding decisions and for public awareness of the costs of natural disasters.
In May, a NOAA spokesperson for the agency told NBC News the decision to end the database was “in alignment with evolving priorities and staffing changes.”
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/senate-democrats-want-revive-noaa-database-tracked-billion-dollar-natu-rcna231456
REFERENCE - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143455959