The Los Angeles wildfires were likely the costliest in history, with insured losses reaching an estimated $60 billion, according to a climate disasters database
The Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters tracker, long maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), chronicled major US catastrophes from 1980 to 2024 before it was abruptly shut down in May amid sweeping budget cuts that critics decried as an ideologically driven attack on science.
22 October 2025