Extreme Weather Events Are Getting More Costly - but Deaths Are Falling. Here’s Why

In the past 50 years, more than 11,000 extreme weather events have been reported from storms to wildfires, landslides and floods. These calamities cost 115 lives and $202 million every 24 hours, on average. Today, they’re 5 times more likely than in 1970 and the costs have grown too. But the number of deaths has fallen sharply, more than halving from the 1970s to the 2010s The WMO says one factor has made all the difference: early warning systems.