America smashed the record for billion-dollar weather disasters this year with a deadly dozen, and counting.
The U.S. in 2011 has seen more weather catastrophes that caused at least $1 billion in damage than it did in all of the 1980s, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There were 12 natural disasters in 2011, NOAA said, each of which cost more than $1 billion, and together, cost $52 billion.
The old record for $1 billion disasters was nine, in 2008.
Half the billion-dollar disasters were tornado outbreaks, said NOAA.
In 2011, Texas had more than a million acres burned by wildfire, and Oklahoma set a record for the hottest month ever in the United States. The Ohio River Valley had triple the normal rainfall, which caused major flooding along the Mississippi River.