Report shows major increase in weather disasters over past 10 years; trend expected to continue

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A startling report from the American Red Cross shows a major increase in severe weather disasters over the past 10 years.

This comes as the United Nations chief said this week that the world is on a "highway to climate hell."

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"It has just been a devastating start to this year's set of disasters, and actually swarms of tornadoes. Have you seen in the news, swarms of tornadoes and severe weather have just raced across the U.S.? From the Midwest down through the southeast, we have seen just a relentless pace of these disasters," said American Red Cross Humanitarian Services President Trevor Riggen.

Riggen says humanitarian aid in the U.S. is deploying to double the number of disasters now than it was just a decade ago.

"We are standing up a major relief operation every 10 to 12 days across the country. When I joined the Red Cross just 18 years ago, we were launching relief operations every 30 days. And so, the data is proving out. There are more disasters, and they are more intense and impacting more people," Riggen said.

We've seen our share of weather related disasters here in Chicago, from extreme flooding to extreme heat and air quality issues last summer.

And more severe weather is expected as international weather monitors say we've seen 12 months of unprecedented heat worldwide.

"The bigger phenomena, like hurricanes, heat waves, flash floods. Yes, there is a clear and direct link to climate change," said Argonne National Lab Atmospheric scientist Scott Collis.

Collis is part of an urban field lab in Chicago called community research on climate and urban science. They've installed sophisticated sensors in areas of the city to monitor how climate change affects temperatures and weather on a neighborhood level. While testing solutions like painting roofs white to reduce heat.

"Not only will there be more warmth in summers, more heatwaves and heat kills more people than tornadoes," Collis said. "Water, which floods and it moves beholden to our engineered system and bad air quality which can be linked to wildfires and other things in our area which really impact some of our most vulnerable communities."