The Rising Economic Costs of Extreme Weather in a Warming United States

Authors

  • Emerson Goodall Thompson Rivers University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29173/bcelnfe762

Keywords:

extreme weather events, climate change, economic impacts, climate disasters, temperature anomalies, climate risk, United States

Author Biography

Emerson Goodall, Thompson Rivers University

Emerson Goodall is a Geography and Environmental Studies student at Thompson Rivers University, with a minor in Economics. Her research focuses on sustainable development, specifically examining how economic tools and data analysis are used to evaluate the growing costs of extreme weather events, and the importance of implementing efficient, sustainability-oriented policies.

Emerson is an exemplary student within her program and intends to continue her studies at Thompson Rivers University by pursuing the Master’s in Environmental Economics Management program. Her strong commitment to academic and professional excellence is demonstrated through her leadership and extensive extracurricular involvement, including her role as President of the Geography Club, her participation as an Environmental Sustainability Ambassador, and her work as a Teacher’s Assistant instructing multiple first-year Geography laboratory sessions.

References

Environmental Defense Fund. (2025). How climate change makes hurricanes more destructive. https://www.edf.org/climate/how-climate-change-makes-hurricanes-more-destructive

Myhre, G., Alterskjær, K., Stjern, C., Hodnebrog, Ø., Marelle, L., Samset, B., Sillmann, J., Schaller, N., Fischer, E., Schulz, M., & Stohl, A. (2019). Frequency of extreme precipitation increases extensively with event rareness under global warming. Scientific Reports, 9, 16063. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52277-4

Newman, R., & Noy, I. (2023). The global costs of extreme weather that are attributable to climate change. CESifo Working Paper No. 10053, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4266618 or https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4266618

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. (2025). U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters [Time series]. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/time-series

Our World in Data. (n.d.). Annual temperature anomalies relative to the pre-industrial period [Data set]. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/temperature-anomaly

Pendergrass, A., & Hartmann, D. (2014). Changes in the distribution of rain frequency and intensity in response to global warming. Journal of Climate, 27, 8372–8383. https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-14-00183.1

Sheng, X., Gupta, R., & Cepni, O. (2024). Time-varying effects of extreme weather shocks on output growth of the United States. Finance Research Letters, 70, Article 106318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2024.106318

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2025, September 11). Climate change indicators: US and global temperature. https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-us-and-global-temperature

Vose, R. S., Easterling, D. R., Kunkel, K. E., LeGrande, A. N., & Wehner, M. F. (2017). Temperature changes in the United States. In D. J. Wuebbles, D. W. Fahey, K. A. Hibbard, D. J. Dokken, B. C. Stewart, & T. K. Maycock (Eds.), Climate science special report: Fourth national climate assessment, Volume I (pp. 185–206). U.S. Global Change Research Program. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20180001314/downloads/20180001314.pdf

Weizman, M. L. (2012). GHG targets as insurance against catastrophic climate damages. Journal of Public Economic Theory, 14(2), 221–224. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9779.2011.01539.x

Cover image with title: Perspectives on the economics of Climate Change. Special Issue, March 2026, Online ISSN: 2819-7046. Background image taken by Peter Tsigaris of the University of Auckland campus.

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Published

2026-03-17

How to Cite

Goodall, E. (2026). The Rising Economic Costs of Extreme Weather in a Warming United States . Future Earth: A Student Journal on Sustainability and Environment. https://doi.org/10.29173/bcelnfe762

Issue

2026: Special Issue: Perspectives on the Economics of Climate Change

Section

Commentaries and Opinions

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