Billion-dollar disasters

Western Wildfires, California Firestorm

June 1 to December 31, 2018 · Wildfire · $30 billion in 2024 dollars

One of the wildfire disasters on NOAA’s billion-dollar list: $30 billion in losses at 2024 prices ($24 billion at the time) and 106 deaths.

What the offices filed during it

The 286 most significant wildfire episodes filed in these dates, colored by kind.

  • Tornadoes
  • Tropical storms and surge
  • Floods
  • Wind
  • Hail
  • Winter weather
  • Heat and drought
  • Cold
  • Fire, smoke and dust
  • Marine and coastal
  • Other

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The toll

Losses, 2024 dollars
$30 billion
Losses at the time
$24 billion
Deaths
106

The losses and deaths are NCEI’s, counting everything the disaster did. The episodes below are only what the Weather Service filed in its Storm Events record, which counts damage differently and often not at all, so the two never add up and are shown apart.

By state, as filed

StateEventsDeathsInjuriesDamage filed
California199115114$19 billion
Washington3700$113 million
Utah2107$53 million
Colorado8800$46 million
Wyoming1003$10 million
Idaho2700$7.8 million
Florida200$810,000
Texas1600$40,000
Nevada803$3,000
Kentucky500$2,000
Oregon4720
Hawaii702
Arizona300
Oklahoma300
Virginia200
New Mexico100

Episode by episode

More

Every billion-dollar disasterEvery storm of 2018Tornadoes in 2018

Sources

NOAA NCEI, U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters (2025), https://doi.org/10.25921/stkw-7w73, and the Storm Events Database for the episodes.