This is part of a series on the effects of climate change.
Storms, cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons
Tropical cyclones with a wind speed above 39 miles per hour (63 kilometers per hour) are considered tropical storms and are given a name. In 2022, there were 87 named storms registered worldwide. Two years earlier, there were 104 named storms, the highest number in a single year in at least four decades. The North Atlantic and Northwestern Pacific basins are the most active for tropical cyclones worldwide.Named storms with wind speeds above a certain threshold receive special names depending on the basin in which they occur: In the Atlantic basin, they are called hurricanes; in the North Pacific, typhoons; in the South Pacific and Indian oceans, simply tropical cyclones. In 2022, the number of hurricanes worldwide – those with a sustained wind speed of 74 miles per hour or greater – was 40, which was below the 1991-2020 average of 47.8.
The effects of tropical cyclones
Once they make landfall, tropical cyclones can have devastating effects, the severest of which is loss of life. There have been almost 800,000 deaths from tropical cyclones worldwide since 1970, an average of 43 deaths per day. Nevertheless, advances in forecast and early warning systems have helped reduce the death toll of major cyclones in recent decades. In the past 50 years, only two of the 10 deadliest tropical cyclones recorded worldwide have happened since 2000.In addition to the irreversible cost of lives lost, tropical cyclones also cause significant economic losses, estimated at more than 570 billion U.S. dollars worldwide in the past decade. With losses exceeding 160 billion U.S. dollars, Hurricane Katrina is the world’s costliest tropical cyclone. The Category 5 hurricane made landfall in the U.S. in late August 2005, affecting mainly the states of Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana, particularly the city of New Orleans. Of the five costliest tropical cyclones on record, four have occurred since 2010.