Economic loss due to major droughts in the U.S. 1980-2023

There have been many billion-dollar drought disaster events that have affected the United States over the last four decades. The most expensive was during the summer of 1988, when damages exceeded 53 billion U.S. dollars. Throughout 2023, the South and Midwest were hit by severe droughts and heatwaves, causing 14.5 billion U.S. dollars in damages, and resulting in nearly 250 deaths.

The droughts left many major reservoirs with record low water levels. Water levels at California's second-largest reservoir, Oroville Lake, dropped so low that it forced the hydroelectric power plant to shut down for the first time since it opened more than half a century ago.