Hurricanes become more costly

As the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season draws to a close, the eye-watering cost is becoming ever more apparent

In a couple of days the Atlantic hurricane season officially comes to a close. 2016 has been very active, with 15 named storms, seven of which became hurricanes.

It started nearly five months early with Alex in mid-January, and ended unusually late with Otto, just a few days ago. Three storms – Gaston, Matthew and Nicole – developed into major hurricanes, and Matthew’s long passage over land made it particularly deadly, taking 1,655 lives. In total the storms have unleashed over 60% more energy than an average hurricane season, and it’s also been the costliest since 2012, causing over $11.5bn (£9.2bn) of damage thus far.

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