Human response to climate change - The Global Climate System: Patterns, Processes, and Teleconnections - page 274

Figure 8.9 Annual
average national loss values
in 1997-equivalent billions
of dollars. (After Changnon
and Hewings 2001 )
highest. Tornado losses produced an average annual loss of $448 million.
Hail and associated wind losses to crops averaged $270 million annually and
property losses from hail averaged $174 million per year. Winter storms
produced losses averaging $282 million, and windstorm losses averaged
$168 million per year. Collectively, all these forms of storms produced
$494 billion in losses during 1950-97.
Temporal distributions of these storm variables have been assessed to define
their long-term fluctuations and trends (Changnon et al. 2001 ). Normalized
(inflation and property at risk) hurricane losses exhibited no change over time,
and after comparable normalization, flood losses displayed an upward trend.
The trend for property losses due to thunderstorms was slightly downward over
time. Winter storm losses continued to increase over time, and the trend was
statistically significant at the 1 percent level. Crop losses due to hail showed a
significant decline over time. Normalized tornado losses had an upward trend
over time for 1950-97. Losses from windstorm catastrophes had a statistically
significant downward trend during the 1950-97 period.
8.4.4 Impacts of major recent climate anomalies
Drought of 1987-9
In mid-1987, a drought began in the High Plains and Midwest. By mid-1988,
40 percent of the United States was experiencing severe drought, and drought
conditions persisted through most of 1989. Measures of drought intensity and
areal extent showed that the 1987-9 drought was one of the ten worst droughts