Uploaded November 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
This NOAA Environmental Data (NED)Talk presentation will highlight NOAA’s systematic approach to tracking U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. It will examine how NOAA identifies and assesses these events, estimates their economic impacts, and analyzes long-term trends to better understand hazard risks and regional vulnerabilities.
Adam Smith, an applied climatologist with NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information–Climate Science and Services Division, serves as the lead scientist for the U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters program.
Other NEDTalks:
nesdis.noaa.gov/data-research-services/data-collections/nedtalks
This NOAA Environmental Data (NED)Talk presentation will highlight NOAA’s systematic approach to tracking U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. It will examine how NOAA identifies and assesses these events, estimates their economic impacts, and analyzes long-term trends to better understand hazard risks and regional vulnerabilities.
Adam Smith, an applied climatologist with NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information–Climate Science and Services Division, serves as the lead scientist for the U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters program.
Other NEDTalks:
nesdis.noaa.gov/data-research-services/data-collections/nedtalks

![Preparing for Hurricanes
As spring heads toward summer, NOAA satellites are prepared to help keep us safe during the upcoming hurricane season, but it’s also important to be ready at home.
This week is National Hurricane Preparedness Week, a time to begin pre-season preparations and understand your risk from hurricanes. Make sure you can interpret forecasts and alerts, and know what to do before, during, and after a storm. If you live in hurricane-prone areas, you are encouraged to prepare before hurricane season begins. The Pacific hurricane season begins May 15 and the Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1.
NOAA will issue its 2023 Atlantic and Pacific Hurricane Season Outlooks later this month.
Read more:
https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/noaa-prepares-hurricane-season
Credits:
NOAA
NASA/GSFC
CIRA
Additional imagery provided by CIMSS
Music:
“In Suspension” by Alexis Arakis [SABAM]; Pedigree Cuts; Universal Production Music Preparing for Hurricanes](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wALMiJInQzM/mqdefault.jpg)
![Earth From Orbit: Fires Across Europe
Temperatures have soared to record-breaking highs across Europe. In the United Kingdom, at least 34 sites have exceeded the previous national record for heat (38.7°C / 101.6°F), with temperatures surpassing 40°C (104°F) on Tuesday, the highest ever recorded in the region. More than 1,000 deaths have been linked to the intense and historic heat wave as well as the wildfires, and thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes.
The sweltering weather has also disrupted travel, health care, and schools. Not only do many buildings in this part of the world not have air conditioning due to the normally mild weather, but various reports have also stated that the intense heat damaged a runway at London’s Luton airport, warped a main road in England, and caused train stations to close or reduce service due to a fear that rails could become damaged.
The extreme weather has also fueled huge wildfires across Spain, Portugal, France, and Greece. Fire officials have battled the blazes throughout these countries for days with the assistance of water bombing planes, and have even begun burning land and cutting down long stretches of forests to prevent the fires from advancing—techniques rarely needed in this part of the world to control fires.
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Credits:
NOAA
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
CIRA
Meteosat-11 Imagery Courtesy of EUMETSAT
Music: “Without a Trace,” by Paul Reeves [PRS]; Volta Music; Universal Production Music Earth From Orbit: Fires Across Europe](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wLTvw7FUR3I/mqdefault.jpg)
![Heavy Rains Cause Flooding in New York City
The remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia over the Atlantic Ocean combined with a mid-latitude system arriving from the west at a time of year when ocean conditions are particularly active for storms. This particular combination system lingered over New York for 12 hours.
The storm unleashed more than eight inches of rain in parts of the New York metropolitan area from Thursday, Sept. 28 into Friday night, leading to flood water coursing through streets and into basements, schools, subways, and vehicles throughout the nation’s most populous city. Twenty-eight people were rescued with no reported deaths.
Read more:
https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/heavy-rains-cause-flooding-new-york-city
Credits:
NOAA
NASA
CIRA
Photograph: Marc A. Hermann/MTA
Flood map imagery courtesy of SSEC.
Music:
“In Sequence” by Ken Bowley [PRS] and Phil Smith [PRS]; Focus Music (Publishing) Ltd [PRS]; Universal Production Music Heavy Rains Cause Flooding in New York City](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wOFq4BHny5k/mqdefault.jpg)
![Earth from Orbit: Hurricane Fiona Leaves Wake of Destruction
Hurricane Fiona, the first major (Category 3+) storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, has been wreaking havoc in the Atlantic, causing catastrophic damage across Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Turks and Caicos. The storm has caused devastating flooding and has damaged critical water and power infrastructure in its wake.
Credits:
NOAA
NASA
CIRA
Music: “Wide Open” by Lee Groves [PRS] & Peter George Marett [PRS]; Atmosphere; Universal Production Music Earth from Orbit: Hurricane Fiona Leaves Wake of Destruction](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wYJLymo_1FE/mqdefault.jpg)
![NOAA Debuts First Imagery from GOES-19
On Sept. 18, 2024, NOAA shared the first images of the Western Hemisphere from its GOES-19 satellite. The satellite’s Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument recently captured stunning views of Earth.
GOES-19, NOAA’s newest geostationary satellite, launched on June 25, 2024, onboard a Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Previously known as GOES-U, the satellite was renamed GOES-19 upon reaching geostationary orbit on July 7, 2024.
The ABI, GOES-19’s primary instrument, views Earth with sixteen different channels, each measuring energy at different wavelengths along the electromagnetic spectrum to obtain information about Earth’s atmosphere, land, and ocean.
Read more:
https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/noaa-debuts-first-imagery-goes-19
Video Credits:
NOAA
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
CIRA
CIMSS
Music:
“Interstellar Travel” by Laurent Dury [SACEM] and JC Lemay [SACEM]; Koka Media [SACEM]; Universal Production Music NOAA Debuts First Imagery from GOES-19](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wpGWchBX514/mqdefault.jpg)



![Earth from Orbit: Hurricane Ernesto
Even with the storm hundreds of miles offshore, Hurricane Ernesto was still being felt Saturday along much of the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, with dangerous rip currents forcing public beaches to close during one of the final busy weekends of the summer season.
Hurricane specialist Philippe Papin from the National Hurricane Center said Ernesto was a “pretty large” hurricane with a “large footprint of seas and waves” affecting the central Florida Atlantic coastline all the way north to Long Island in New York, with tropical-storm-force winds extending outward up to 230 miles from the storm’s center.
Credits:
NOAA
NASA
CIRA
Music: “Perpetual Ocean” by Bruce Haliday [PRS]; Freshworx; Universal Production Music Earth from Orbit: Hurricane Ernesto](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xtdcxZgNW9M/mqdefault.jpg)
