Increasing Weather Disasters

A study by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction shows that 90 percent of major natural disasters over the past 20 years consist of floods, storms, heatwaves, drought and other weather related events. An average of 335 disasters per year from 2005 to 2015 is double the average over 1985 to 1995. Events since 1995 have killed over 600,000 people with over 4 billion impacted in some way at a cost of US$ 5 to 6 trillion.

Update (July 8, 2018):  As dramatic rescue efforts are underway for a Thai soccer team trapped in a cave by flash floods, there's also the news that "unprecedented" rain has lead to dozens of deaths in Japan. Humans have amazing ingenuity, yet we are still humbled by the forces of nature.