Economic Growth in the Face of Weather and Climate Extremes: A Call for Better Data

The U.S. economy has grown to be the world's largest, even in the face of the most varied and costly weather and climate extremes on the planet (see http://www.munichreamerica.com/webinars/2013_01_natcatreview/MunichRe_III_NatCat01032013.pdf). Nevertheless, these extremes continue to take a toll on the nation, diverting public and private funds while limiting economic growth and jobs and threatening the well-being of Americans. Extreme weather events affect every state and manifest differently by region (see Figure 1 in Supporting Information in the online version of this Forum and http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/summary-stats).