Here in the U.S., nearly 1,000 all-time weather records were set in 2011, including triple-digit heat and drought, tornadoes and floods. A record 10 extreme disasters cost the nation over a billion dollars each.
It started in January when a massive blizzard caused $2 billion of damage and paralyzed cities from Chicago to the northeast. Since that time, nearly every month has racked up a weather catastrophe costing over a billion dollars, three times the total of the past three decades and twice the number recorded in the 1990s.
In July, Oklahoma set a record for the hottest month ever in any state, and Houston had a record string of 24 days in August with temperatures over 100 degrees. And it didn't even cool down when the sun set, with record nighttime highs.
"These events are abnormal," said Tom Karl of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. "But it's part of an ongoing trend we've seen since 1980."
Deadly fires burned across Texas as eight inches of rain fell on New Orleans from tropical storm Lee.
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