Severe Weather Is Getting Worse In New York

Initially growing up in southern Florida, I'm no stranger to severe weather. In Miami, Hurricanes were so common, that we would intentionally throw "Hurricane Parties" to pass the time.

While Florida has built its entire infrastructure to avoid unnecessary disaster, New York is on the opposite side of the spectrum, constantly having to look for new ways to keep severe weather at bay.

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Severe Weather is Getting Worse

On Tuesday, October 28th, State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli released a new report discussing the uptick in severe weather across the state of New York. Since 1980, severe weather events that cause a billion dollars or more in damage have increased at an alarming rate.

Since 1998, New York has seen, on average, around 2.5 severe weather events per years, totaling $958.6 million per year in federal emergency funds. according to NOAA, 594 deaths have been recorded due to these since 1996, with most being attributed to extreme heat events.

Managing Extreme Weather

When looking at the events that cause the most property damage, Flash Flooding and Thunderstorm Winds stand above the rest, causing a combined $4.2 Billion in property damage. Obviously, this is less than optimal, which is why the State of New York is attempting to cut those numbers down.

In 2022, the state approved the Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Bond Act. Part of this would allocate funds to help improve infrastructure to withstand these weather events, as well as bring $1.1 Billion to help restoration after these events. The Capital Region specifically is hit harder by these events than most of the state, and could use funds like these drastically.