Paralyzing winter storms have significantly slowed the US economy, but to what extent?

Major Winter Storm Brings Widespread Disruption and Economic Losses Across the U.S.

A severe winter storm has swept across much of the eastern United States, bringing dangerous ice, snow, and freezing temperatures. This extreme weather event has not only caused significant hazards but is also expected to inflict multi-billion dollar losses on the national economy, according to analysts.

While the precise financial impact remains uncertain, both economists and weather experts are working to assess the economic fallout from such winter disasters. Unlike the more straightforward calculations for hurricane or flood damage, the costs associated with winter storms are often more complex to determine.

“Storms like this reveal how deeply our economy depends on stable weather. When major airports close or the power grid fails, the resulting disruptions quickly spread through supply chains and affect businesses in many industries at once,” explained Jacob Fooks, a research economist at Colorado State University’s Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere.

Fooks noted that while there is no universal agreement among researchers, most estimates indicate that severe weather can reduce the nation’s gross domestic product by 0.5% to 2% each year—a significant impact. With the U.S. GDP at roughly $30 trillion, this translates to annual losses between $150 billion and $600 billion.

Estimating the Storm’s Price Tag

Although it is still too early for a definitive tally, the private forecasting company AccuWeather has released a preliminary estimate for the storm that caused over 11,000 flight cancellations. They put the potential cost between $105 billion and $115 billion, a figure that several other experts have criticized as overly high and lacking in detail.

“Much of the economic toll comes from interruptions to business and the expenses caused by power outages,” said Jonathan Porter, Chief Meteorologist at AccuWeather, during the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting in Houston. “Some companies may remain closed for days or even longer.”

Porter described the event as “the storm that shut everything down,” noting that by Monday, at least 25 fatalities had been reported. He also pointed to widespread power outages, damaged vehicles, fallen trees, and the challenge of resuming air travel as factors that will continue to drive up costs.

Experts Dispute High Estimates

Adam Smith, a climate economist who previously managed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s list of billion-dollar weather disasters, agreed that the storm will result in several billion dollars in damages, making it the first billion-dollar weather event of 2026. However, he argued that AccuWeather’s estimate is far too high and pointed out that the company has a history of releasing outlier figures. For example, AccuWeather initially estimated $250 billion in damages from the previous year’s Los Angeles wildfires, while subsequent analyses by climate and insurance groups placed the actual cost closer to $60 billion.

AccuWeather has not yet responded to requests for further comment.

Historically, the most expensive winter storm in the U.S. was the 2021 Texas ice storm, which caused about $26 billion in damages. The 2016 blizzard in the Northeast resulted in approximately $3 billion in losses. Smith suggested that the current storm could rival the 2021 Texas event due to its broad reach.

The Challenge of Measuring Winter Storm Losses

Unlike hurricanes, fires, or floods—which cause direct physical damage that insurers can quantify—winter storms often result in less tangible losses, such as missed business opportunities. These are much harder to measure, according to Smith, meteorology professor Victor Gensini of Northern Illinois University, former NOAA chief scientist Ryan Maue, and former National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini.

“When we talk about billion-dollar disasters, we’re usually referring to insurable losses from hurricanes,” Maue explained. “People typically aren’t compensated for the inconvenience of bad weather.”

Uccellini added that calculating the cost of lost opportunities is complicated, in part because some businesses—like hardware stores or grocery stores—may actually benefit from increased sales during storms. Still, Fooks emphasized that overall losses from supply chain disruptions, emergency response costs, and business interruptions far outweigh any localized gains.

Regardless of the method used to calculate damages, Porter and other experts agree that the costs are mounting. As climate change accelerates, severe weather events are becoming more frequent and more damaging worldwide, with this storm serving as the latest example.