The demise of the Billion Dollar Disaster Database

A major milestone for millions in hurricane-prone regions of the U.S. and the Caribbean passed this week. The National Hurricane Center began issuing its daily tropical outlooks that help track potential storm activity in the Atlantic Ocean, but the season doesn't officially begin for two weeks.

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, the environment and energy news happening around the country. I'm Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent with Paste BN.

Climate change and rising temperatures are contributing to the intensity of weather-related disasters in the U.S., according to scientists. One way that people have watched the progression of such disasters was with the federal government's Billion Dollar Disaster Database. The compilation of the total estimated costs of weather-related disasters demonstrated how costs have climbed over time, for a variety of reasons including climate change. Now National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials have retired the database and don't plan to add any additional storms.

After hundreds of employees were cut from the National Weather Service through terminations, retirements and incentivized departures, the agency is inviting remaining staff members to apply to transfer to other locations to try to help fill in the gaps where the departures left too many vacant positions. Some weather forecast offices are down more than 20%, making it hard to cover the 24/7 shifts needed to monitor severe weather and tornadoes. The weather service offered up 155 positions, including 76 meteorology positions in the continental U.S., Alaska Hawaii and Guam.

In other weather service news, five former directors published a letter expressing concern about staffing shortages and other issues across the weather service and NOAA, its parent agency. At the National Centers for Environmental Information for example, records show more than 30% of the staff has departed.

Meanwhile, tornado activity has started in 2025 at a feverish pace, with preliminary reports of more than 700 tornadoes by early May. That's a more prolific start to the year than any year since 2011.

NOAA scientists and others reported this week that April 2025 was the second warmest April in global records. NOAA and others have reported that some of the cooling seen in April reduced the chances of the globe turning in yet another hottest year on record. NOAA puts the chances of 2025 being as warm as 2024 or warmer at only 3%. In the U.S. it was the 13th warmest April on record.

What's in your water? The EPA announced plans to rescind the limits it set last year on four "forever chemicals," but a Paste BN analysis shows the chemicals are detected in hundreds of water systems that serve more than 84 million Americans. Levels are high enough in the water systems serving 4 million people that it would have required advanced filtration or a search for other water sources, report Ignacio Calderon and Austin Fast.

What's for lunch? The world's plastic problem is growing, writes Elizabeth Weise with Paste BN. A study released in late April found chemicals in plastics were potentially associated with as many as 350,000 heart disease deaths globally in 2018. Minuscule pieces of plastic are found from Antarctica to the Amazon and throughout the human body, including our hearts and brains. The plastics industry has pushed back against such research, saying their products provide "unmatched safety, protection, and efficiency across countless applications while offering the potential for reuse and recycling," Matt Seaholm, CEO and president of the Plastics Industry Association, said in a statement to Paste BN.

Cicadas don't bite. The large insects can be annoying but they aren't a hazard to your health. Check out this engaging infographic that debunks myths around the noisy critters.

Preventing massive wildfires. New research out of the University of Arizona finds that reducing density in a forest by removing trees shows progress as a way to reduce the number of megafires, however increasing the prescribed burning also is important to help manage the risk of large intense fires that grow exponentially.

Handling the heat. Can a phone app help you avoid heat stress and illness? A team from the University of Georgia decided to have athletic trainers in 11 states help collect data to measure the effectiveness of a smartphone application, which might help football players, runners and others monitor for dangerous conditions. After comparing the data collected with actual onsite measurements, the team found the app tended to underestimate heat stress conditions.

Read on for more, including budget cuts at an EPA office in the Great Lakes. Some stories may require a subscription. If someone forwarded you this email and you'd like to receive Climate Point in your inbox once a week, sign up here.