Texas Tops 10 States Ravaged by Extreme Weather in 2011

By: Andrew Freedman, Alyson Kenward and Mike Lemonick

Texas, Alabama and Missouri topped the list of states hardest hit by the unrelenting assault of extreme weather in 2011.

Severe weather across much of the nation has raised the question of whether global warming has already begun to influence shorter-term weather patterns, and the specter of even more extreme years to come as global temperatures continue to rise. 

STATES OF DISASTER: TOP 10 STATES 

No. 1-Texas
No. 2-Alabama
No. 3-Missouri
No. 4-North Carolina
No. 5-Oklahoma
No. 6-Tennessee
No. 7-Kansas
No. 8-Connecticut
No. 9-Vermont
No. 10-New Jersey

According to climate studies, the short answer is yes: the new climate environment created by global warming is more conducive to some extreme events, particularly heat waves and heavy precipitation events: these are now more likely to occur and be more intense when they do take place. Climate models have more difficulty predicting how climate change may be influencing other types of extremes, such as severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, but a warming climate provides more fuel to these events in the form of increased water vapor and heat in the atmosphere.

And those extreme events—searing heat waves, parching drought, deadly tornadoes, blizzards and floods—cost billions of dollars in damage, affected millions of lives and tragically, killed more than a thousand people across the U.S.

By some measures, 2011 was the most extreme year for the U.S. since reliable record-keeping began in the 19thcentury—and the costs have been enormous: according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2011 set a record for the most billion dollar disasters in a single year. There were 12, breaking the old record of nine set in 2009. The aggregate damage from these 12 events totals at least $52 billion, NOAA found.

While extreme weather knows no boundaries, and the impact of those events was felt coast to coast, Climate Central looked at the number of extreme events that affected each state to determine the 10 states that were clobbered the worst. According to Climate Central’s analysis, Texas tops that list of hardest hit, with a costly—and deadly—combination of intense drought, a punishing heat wave, the worst wildfires in state history, and plenty of tornadoes. Rounding out the top 10 was Alabama, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kansas, Connecticut, Vermont and New Jersey. 

Climate Central’s analysis factored the death toll in each state, damage costs, the disruption caused to daily life, and how unusual the events were compared with what transpires in an average year.

 But for these 10 states, little of what transpired was average as extreme weather rewrote the record books in 2011. 

(Read our state by state analysis by following the page links below) 

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No. 1 Texas

In 2011, Texas broke records: hottest summer ever, worst one-year drought and largest wildfire season. The resulting agricultural loss and damage climbed to a staggering $10 billion. Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images.

Texas was hit by eight of the nation’s billion dollar disasters - the most of any state in the country. Of the eight, the three most devastating were drought, heat, and wildfires. The drought still grips the state, and it is the most intense one-year drought on record. Unlike past dry periods, the damage to the state has been aggravated by record-breaking heat. Groundwater levels in much of the state have fallen to their lowest levels in more than 60 years, according to observations from NASA satellites. 

The heat during the summer of 2011 was relentless, with many cities smashing records for the longest stretch of 100-degree days, including Dallas with a record 70 straight days with 100-degree heat, and San Angelo with a whopping 98 days above 100. July 2011 was the hottest month ever recorded statewide, and Amarillo, Texas reached 111 degrees on June 26, an all-time record high for that location where records date back to 1892.

The combination of drought and unusually hot conditions during this summer helped fuel massive wildfires, and the 2011 wildfire season was the worst in Texas’ history, with about 4 million acres burned from November 2010 through November 2011, causing $750 million in damage and killing 10 people, including four firefighters. 

Lake and reservoir levels have fallen so low that they are revealing entire towns flooded decades ago at the bottom of lakes and reservoirs. Ranchers have been forced to sell off large portions of their herds early, which is likely to raise beef prices by reducing future beef supplies.

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No. 2 Alabama

In 2011, hundreds of tornados touched down in Alabama killing more than 240 people. The weather-related damage was estimated at $4.6 billion. Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images.

Alabama was ground zero for the largest tornado outbreak in American history, when more than 100 twisters gouged paths across the state in late April – killing 240 people.

Some of the most intense tornadoes flattened heavily populated areas. One twister, shown nationally on live TV, tore through downtown Tuscaloosa and went on to destroy parts of Birmingham. Another monster twister, this one an EF-5 with winds stronger than 200 mph, tracked across northern Alabama, killing 78 people, becoming one of the deadliest single tornadoes in modern American history.

According to the Storm Prediction Center, Alabama saw the most tornadoes of any state this year, with 170. The staggering death toll and damage these storms caused led to a wave of Alabama state pride, with the mantra “We are Alabama” spreading throughout social media networks in the storms’ wake. 

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No. 3 Missouri

In April, a deadly tornado almost a mile wide swept through Joplin, MO killing more than 150 people. Credit: Shane Keyser/Kansas City Star/MCT/Getty Images.

Missouri was the site of America’s worst tornado disaster since 1950, when a massive tornado, nearly a mile wide, wiped large portions of the city of Joplin off the map on May 22nd. With winds greater than 200 mph, that tornado killed nearly 160 people, making it the seventh deadliest in U.S. history. 

Tornadoes were just one prong of the deadly onslaught of extreme weather in Missouri, as a combination of heavy spring rains and upstream snowmelt sent the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers surging over their banks. According to NOAA, in an average year the Missouri River channels 24.8 million acre feet of water. This year, it carried 24.3 million acre feet in May and June alone. When the Army Corps of Engineers essentially blew up the levees to save the small town of Cairo, Illinois, floodwaters inundated around 130,000 acres of Missouri farmland.

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No. 4 North Carolina 

Not only was NC hit by a deadly tornado in April, but it was one of the first states hit by Hurricane Irene. Total damage costs have topped $3 billion. Credit: NASA.

April 2011 was the most active tornado month in U.S. history with 753 tornadoes. North Carolina was among the states worst hit. On April 16, multiple tornadoes ripped through Raleigh and nearby towns, leaving a trail of destruction behind them. Thirty-eight people died in a two-day April tornado outbreak that spread through 10 states; 22 were in North Carolina. 

North Carolina was also one of the first states walloped by Hurricane Irene in August. With its immense 450-mile span, the storm battered the North Carolina coast with rain and driving 60-80 mph winds for nearly 12 hours. Half a million people lost power during the storm, and the gusting winds generated waves high enough to demolish piers and damage homes along the coastline. All told, the cost to North Carolina from tornadoes and Irene is estimated at $3.2 billion.

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No. 5 Oklahoma

This past year, OK's summer was the hottest recorded for any state, EVER. Large areas of the state experienced 60-100 days over 100 degress F instead of the typical 15-30 days. Credit: Oklahoma Climatological Survey. 

In 2011 Oklahomans suffered through a brutal combination of severe drought and intense heat, the likes of which have not been seen since the infamous Dust Bowl era of the 1930s. The “Sooner State” had the hottest summer of any state in U.S. history, narrowly beating neighboring Texas, and eclipsing a record that dated to 1934. Oklahoma’s average day and nighttime temperature during July was a scorching 88.9 degrees, the warmest in any state during any month on record. 

For an idea of how hot it was in Oklahoma last summer, consider this: In Grandfield, the temperature reached or exceeded 100 degrees on a record-setting 97 days from mid-April to September 1.

On top of record heat, last February the state froze its way through the coldest temperature on record: -31 degrees F, and the state’s heaviest 24-hour snowfall on record, when 27 inches fell in the town of Spavinaw. 

And if that wasn’t enough, Oklahomans also struggled with other weather hazards, including the largest hailstone in state history, some of which measured half a foot in diameter.

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No. 6 Tennessee 

The total cost of weather related damage in TN nearly reached $4 billion from a EF-4 tornado that touched down in Apison and deadly floods resulting from the rainest May on record. Credit:NASA.

The good news for Tennessee this year was that the drought that plagued states to the southwest — Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas — didn’t make it up this far. But for the Volunteer State, a little more drought might have been a good thing. 

Tennessee had an unusually wet spring, part of a broader-scale deluge that spurred massive flooding along the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio Rivers. On May 10, the Mississippi River crested at 47.9 feet (14.6 m) in Memphis, the highest level reached there since 1937. The damage in Memphis alone is estimated to have cost $320 million, according to NOAA.

Floods weren’t the only lethal weather to strike Tennessee during the spring. Although it did not suffer the brunt of these events, Tennessee was also affected by five massive severe weather outbreaks, each of which were billion dollar disasters. During the largest of the tornado outbreaks, which occurred between April 24-28, 32 people were killed in Tennessee. One EF-4 tornado tracked across parts of Chattanooga, causing major damage in the community of Apison where eight people were killed and 100 injured. When you add in the heat wave that blasted most of the eastern half of the U.S. in July, the total damage from weather and climate-related disasters added up to nearly $4 billion.

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No. 7 Kansas 

Heat, drought, hail and tornados all plagued KS this summer with total damage costs exceeding $4 billion. Credit: US Army Corps of Engineers.

The massive heat wave and drought that devastated Texas and Oklahoma didn’t hit Kansas quite as hard, but it was bad enough to help push the Jayhawk State into the top 10 this year. By midsummer, much of the southwestern part of the state was suffering under “exceptional drought” conditions — it ended up being the ninth driest year ever recorded — and by year’s end, there was still no relief in sight. Wichita had more 100-degree-plus days than any year on record, beating out even the Dust Bowl summer of 1936.

As of May, the state had seen unusually few tornadoes, but that didn’t last: powerful thunderstorms, tornadoes and punishing hail swept the state in June, July and August. To top it all off, a 5.6-intensity earthquake struck on November 5. The quake didn’t cause much damage, but combined agricultural losses from the heat and drought topped $4 billion.

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No. 8 Connecticut

Tropical Storm Irene brought flooding and massive power failures to CT but the record October snowstorm did the most damage taking out power to over 700,000 people . Credit: bbcamericangirl/flickr.

Snowstorms aren’t usually news in Connecticut — but 2011 was hardly usual.  Hartford was buried under a record-setting 57 inches of snow in January, making it the all-time snowiest month in state history. Then, nearly two months before the next winter began, Connecticut was blasted by the worst October snowstorm in 200 years. The heavy wet snow, which cost the state more than $500 million, sent trees and tree limbs falling onto power lines, leaving more than 700,000 people without heat or lights. In the worst power failure in state history, MANY didn’t get their electricity back for more than a week.

 In August, Tropical Storm Irene pummeled the state with heavy rains and gale-force winds that caused devastating floods and turned the lights out on more than 650,000 people. Some areas were pounded with as much as eight inches of rain in just 24 hours. 

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No. 9 Vermont

Spring flooding follwed by Tropical Storm Irene in August caused VT to have an exceptionally wet year with flood damage from Irene alone estimated at over $200 million. Credit: Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images. 

Just as most of the Northeast thought they had escaped the worst of Irene’s wrath, the super-saturated tropical storm ravaged Vermont. The furious rains battered more than 2,000 roads spanning 500 miles in the state, paralyzing commerce, stranding people and demolishing thousands of homes and businesses. More than 175 roads were completely destroyed and have only been rebuilt months later in what has been described as a model of fast-paced recovery from a disaster.

 This all came after one of the snowiest winters on record, which produced record snowmelt. In May, heavy rain and all that melting snow drove Lake Champlain to its highest level on record, flooding several nearby towns. Record-setting rains helped set the stage for Irene’s damage by saturating the ground and putting streams and rivers at unusually high levels when the storm arrived.

Vermont officials say the total damage costs from Irene will be between $175 and $250 million.

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No. 10 New Jersey

Tropical Storm Irene slammed into the Garden State flooding rivers, destroying roads and knocking out power for half a million people.  Credit: Brendan McDermid/Reuters. 

Hurricane Irene roared into New Jersey to become one of the state’s deadliest and costliest storms, as well as the state’s wettest storm in more than a century. Tropical downpours sent rivers and streams overflowing, with nine rivers rising to their highest level ever. The flooding closed 300 roads and highways and interrupted train service for days.

The bill for hurricane damage in New Jersey stands at $1.4 billion already, and at least seven people died during the storm. Then, two weeks later, a second round of drenching rain — the remains of Tropical Storm Lee — swept across the state, triggering even more flooding. All told, it was the wettest August and September New Jersey has seen in 117 years.

Just as the Garden State began to dry out, a freak autumn snowstorm hit over the Halloween weekend. The wet, heavy snow stuck to leaves that hadn’t fallen from the trees. The result: falling branches that blocked roads and downed power lines, leaving half a million people without electricity — some of them for days. 

Correction: An earlier version of this story contained references to April flooding in Nashville, TN. This flooding occurred in 2010, not 2011. Also, the National Weather Service rated the Apison, TN tornado as an EF-4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, not an EF-5 as previously indicated.