LOS ANGELES, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- The United States saw 27 individual weather and climate disasters in 2024 with at least 1 billion U.S. dollars in damage, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

These disasters caused at least 568 direct or indirect fatalities, which is the eighth-highest for these billion-dollar disasters over the last 45 years.

The cost was approximately 182.7 billion U.S. dollars, according to an annual analysis of NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Adding the 27 events of 2024 to the record that begins in 1980, the United States has sustained 403 weather and climate disasters for which the individual damage costs reached or exceeded 1 billion U.S. dollars.

The cumulative cost for these 403 events exceeded 2.915 trillion U.S. dollars, according to NCEI. ■