California’s blazing wildfires and last year’s destructive hurricanes in the Southeast are frightening examples of the dramatic impacts of climate change. Illinoisans might feel relatively safe from these devastating events, but recently released data shows no region is truly immune to weather disasters. In 2024, Illinois was affected by the most billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the state since recordkeeping began in 1980, making it the fourth-costliest year after 2012, 1993 and 2023, according to an annual report released last week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Twelve events that touched multiple states cost Illinois a total of nearly $4 billion in damages — nine of those were severe storms with tornadoes, hail and high winds. “We put a lot of attention on hurricanes and these larger events, but these convective (or severe) storms are something that we should all think about,” said Ashish Sharma, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign whose research focuses on climate modeling as well as mitigation and adaptation practices. “Serious storms don’t have that high, sudden impact, but are really spread out — and that creates a lot of economic losses.” As a whole, the country experienced 27 disasters that each cost over $1 billion in 2024, closely following a record 28 separate billion-dollar events in 2023. They included one wildfire and five hurricanes. According to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, the 27 events in the United States cost $182.7 billion — an estimate that may still rise by several billion dollars as new data become available. The most recent data makes 2024 the country’s fourth-costliest year on record, adjusted for inflation, behind 2017, 2005 and 2022. In Illinois, other billion-dollar disasters that marked a year of weather extremes — including Chicago’s hottest year on record — were a winter storm, flooding from heavy rains in June and tropical cyclone Beryl in July, which after landfall produced tropical storm remnants that reached the lower Great Lakes region. Chicago’s extreme weather of 2024: The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest While these costly price tags help quantify the real-life effects of climate change, Sharma cautioned against focusing only on the numbers. “You cannot just measure these disasters in terms of economic value or traditional mortality, but also in terms of how quality of life is impacted for people,” he said. Climate change and rising temperatures are making thunderstorms, wildfires and tornadoes occur more often, as well as in historically less active seasons and regions, according to experts. Studies have suggested that conditions favorable to severe storms will become more frequent with warming over the 21st century — about 5% to 20% more frequent per 1.8-degree Fahrenheit increase. The planet’s average temperature in 2024 was the warmest on record. A year ago, bitter cold, sleet and freezing rain descended over central and southern states including Illinois, and wind chills reached minus 40 degrees. CTA trains ground to a halt, delaying services due to mechanical problems from the cold weather. Between February and July, nine severe storms across the central U.S. produced dozens of tornadoes, large hail and strong winds — damaging buildings, downing trees, knocking down power lines and displacing residents. Severe storms and tornadoes in mid-July overtopped a dam in southern Illinois, cut power to hundreds of thousands and disrupted air and train travel. A woman in Indiana died after a tree fell onto a home. Pedestrians bundle up against the cold as steam rises off the Chicago River with temperatures below zero on Jan. 14, 2024. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune) On his first visit to Chicago, and with the city under an excessive heat warning, New Yorker Juan Chacon cools off at Crown Fountain in Millennium Park on Aug. 27, 2024. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune) The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently announced the delivery of $12 billion in federal disaster recovery funds for severe storms and flooding to 47 communities across the country, including $426 million for Chicago, $244 million for Cook County, $96 million for the town of Cicero and $89 million for St. Clair County. The three communities in northeastern Illinois received the funds to continue recovery efforts after flooding from severe storms in 2023, as well as the ones in mid-July 2024. Even those not directly affected by climate disasters end up bearing their costs, as taxpayer money pays for assistance programs for disaster relief at the local, state and federal levels. “Last year probably was our worst year, as far as tornadoes and the flooding that we had” in Illinois, said Tricia Ponicki, a first-aid instructor certified in emergency preparedness and response and a former Red Cross volunteer. “It was the consistency — because it seemed like one after another.” The National Weather Service in Chicago issued 16 tornado warnings on July 15 — the most it has sent out on a single day since 2004. The office confirmed that at least 28 tornadoes swept across northern Illinois and northwest Indiana as peak wind gusts reached more than 100 mph. By that time of the year, Illinois had already experienced over 100 tornadoes, though the state typically averages 50 tornadoes annually. Studies have found climate change may be affecting tornado patterns. As winters get warmer, the conditions for tornadoes to form increase, leading to more during nontraditional tornado months. Ponicki is a real estate agent by day, but she is also the founder and executive director of a suburban Burbank-based nonprofit, the BCA Hub Youth and Resource Center. Since 2018, the organization has provided children and young adults with life skills, as well as training for disaster preparedness, response and recovery to foster climate resilience. “I tell them it’s better to be prepared than scared,” Ponicki said. “If I can plant the mustard seeds in these children, I figure, they’re the best to absorb. As adults, we will grasp the knowledge, but we’re kind of set in our own ways, like, ‘Oh, it’s never going to happen to me.'” Devon Billeter looks over damage to her foyer from fallen drywall and a damaged roof on Feb. 28, 2024, on Essex Court in Geneva after strong storms passed through the night before. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)An apartment complex at 32 Washington Boulevard shows a damaged roof on Feb. 28, 2024, in Mundelein. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)A neighbor walks a dog by a felled tree on Feb. 28, 2024, along Essex Court in Geneva after strong storms the night before. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)Red Cross manager Hank Welch surveys damage at an apartment complex at 32 Washington Boulevard on Feb. 28, 2024, in Mundelein. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)Downed trees and a damaged roof at an apartment complex at 32 Washington Boulevard on Feb. 28, 2024, in Mundelein. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)A Little Free Library structure is tipped over on Feb. 28, 2024, along Essex Court in Geneva. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)Workers repair a damaged home and roof on Feb. 28, 2024, on Essex Court in Geneva after strong storms passed through. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)A substantial number of large trees and limbs are seen fallen into yards and houses on Feb. 28, 2024, along Essex Court in Geneva. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)A large tree is destroyed in a backyard on Feb. 28, 2024, along Essex Court in Geneva after strong storms passed through Tuesday night. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)Workers clear trees and limbs Feb. 28, 2024, along Essex Court in Geneva. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)Armando Perez, left, and Gabby Perez, right. stand on either side of their niece, Victoria Perez, as they watch lightning illuminate the sky at Montrose Harbor as a storm moves over Lake Michigan following two days of unseasonably warm weather on Feb. 27, 2024. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)Lightning strikes above downtown Chicago as a storm moves over Lake Michigan on Feb. 27, 2024. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)A vehicle is seen parked underneath a DuSable Lake Shore Drive viaduct as drivers wait out a storm following two days of unseasonably warm weather in Chicago on Feb. 27, 2024. Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)With the temperature rising above 70 degrees, people relax in hammocks and on the grass on the Main Quad at the University of Chicago on Feb. 27, 2024. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)With the temperature rising above 70 degrees, Juan Pablo Paez, under ball, and other University of Chicago students make a game out of keeping a soccer ball in the air on the Main Quad at the university on Feb. 27, 2024. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)People gather along Chicago's lakefront on Feb. 25, 2024. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)A paddleboarder moves along Lake Michigan on Feb. 20, 2024, at Montrose Beach in Chicago. (Vincent Alban/Chicago Tribune)Bogdan Stroe and Meghan MacDougall enjoy the mild weather in the grass around the Illinois Centennial Monument in Chicago's Logan Square on Feb. 25, 2024. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)Erik Kittlaus prepares to go wing foiling on Lake Michigan on Feb. 20, 2024, at Montrose Beach in Chicago. (Vincent Alban/Chicago Tribune)Carlos Lopez Parra leaps along the circular stone sculptures outside the Adler Planetarium in the Museum Campus in Chicago on Feb. 26, 2024.(Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)Warmer weather activities are enjoyed on the Chicago River at River Park in the North Park neighborhood on Feb. 27, 2024. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)People enjoy the mild weather along the lakefront on Feb. 25, 2024, in Chicago. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)A bicyclist enjoys the mild weather while passing through Chicago's Logan Square on Feb. 25, 2024. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)Show Caption1 of 23Devon Billeter looks over damage to her foyer from fallen drywall and a damaged roof on Feb. 28, 2024, on Essex Court in Geneva after strong storms passed through the night before. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)Expand When disaster strikes in Illinois and beyond, the hub’s volunteers are often at the front lines, offering assistance and distributing supplies for babies and children. The nonprofit is now raising funds through a GoFundMe campaign to help kids and teens affected by the wildfires in California. In the past, the organization has assisted after hurricanes in Louisiana and floods in Tennessee and Kentucky. In September 2023, Ponicki said, the nonprofit distributed 250 backpacks with supplies and essentials to schoolchildren in Cicero whose homes flooded from severe storms as the academic year started. They also regularly distribute seasonal kits to homeless people to prepare them for severe weather conditions. “Whether it’s the fires or the hurricanes or droughts or flooding, there is no clock to Mother Nature,” Ponicki said. “So whenever that arises, you just have to be able to go.” Often, volunteer and community-led organizations offer crucial, ground-zero emergency response services to their neighbors. The first U.S. government agency to respond to a disaster is the Federal Emergency Management Agency, through emergency first responders and relief funds. But, as wildfires rage in California, President-elect Donald Trump has repeated false claims about FEMA being out of money to assist residents, similar to those he made after Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina in September. Critics say these claims undermine relief efforts. In fact, Congress approved in December a bill for $29 billion in new money for FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund and billions more in related funds. A FEMA report said that even the $40 billion that President Joe Biden had originally asked for would not have been enough to cover the costs of intensified weather disasters, meaning the agency still needs tens of billions more to remain solvent through the end of the fiscal year in September. Related Articles Environment | Imperiled wetlands save the Midwest billions in flood damage costs, study shows, but they’re disappearing Environment | A year after devastating floods, West Side residents are still dealing with damage and expensive repairs Environment | Drought that affected Illinois, other states was most expensive billion-dollar disaster in 2023, but extreme cold can be costly in other ways Looking to the future, Cook County scores high on NOAA’s weather and climate hazard risk scale. Its severe storm risk is 88.40 out of 100. That’s more than five times the U.S. average risk score. Its freeze risk score is 70.75 out of 100, almost five times the national average. The county is also more than four times likelier to face risks of drought and flooding than the rest of the country. In the last 44 years, Illinois has experienced 128 confirmed weather events each with losses exceeding $1 billion. These include 92 severe storms, 12 droughts, 12 winter storms, eight floods, two tropical cyclones and two freezes. Edie Jacobs, 76, surveys her flooded basement along the 900 block of North Lockwood Avenue on July 2, 2023, in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune) However, this record of billion-dollar disasters doesn’t account for less visible weather extremes like heat waves or above-average temperatures, which are harder to quantify. “We often don’t talk about heat in these numbers, because heat is a silent killer. So it leads to a lot of issues related to mental health and, of course, mortality,” Sharma said. “But it aggravates existing health issues that disproportionately impact people who are vulnerable economically, but also socially.” Sweltering summer nights are the most compelling evidence of climate change in the Midwest, according to experts. Overall summer average temperatures have increased by 1.5 degrees between 1970 and 2022 in Chicago, but average lows have warmed at a higher rate of 2.2 degrees in that same time. Humidity makes heat persist for longer into the night. That sticky, persisting humidity, in turn, poses more risks to public health as it extends human exposure to uncomfortable temperatures — even if they’re not record-breaking or rise to the level of extreme. Heat-related illnesses like heat stroke can also be fatal, but heat-related deaths are particularly difficult to track as there is no consistent method for recording them on death certificates, according to The New York Times. Still, visibly destructive disasters such as billion-dollar wildfires, hurricanes and floods send a clear message that climate change is real, especially as they pummel communities across the country. “This is going to be a lot more frequent — if you look at the last 20, 25 years, we were having a lot more disasters as we get closer to the current year,” Sharma said. “And I’m pretty confident this will continue over the coming years, many more years, unless and until we really start working to address climate change.” [email protected]