Adam Smith

Adam Smith is an applied climatologist formerly at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information–Climate Science and Services Division. For 15 years, Smith was the lead scientist for NOAA's U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters program. This research integrated and quantified more than a dozen public and private sector disaster data sources into better quality-controlled disaster cost frameworks as research tools.

Socioeconomic exposure and vulnerability data was also integrated to better intersect how weather and climate extremes cause physical, social, and economic impacts on all parts of society, particularly vulnerable populations: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/risk

Smith provided briefings to the Science for Disaster Reduction working group on U.S. disaster costs and was the NOAA expert on U.S. disaster loss data in support of the international Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2016-2024), the American Meteorological Society Committee on Financial Weather Risk Management (2015–2024) and the interagency Hazards and Natural Capital Accounting Working Group.

Smith has represented the U.S. on numerous international research teams developing disaster frameworks including the World Meteorological Organization expert team for Cataloguing of Hazardous Weather, Water, Climate, Environmental and Space Weather Events. Smith also served on expert teams with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, International Science Council and Integrated Research on Disaster Risk.

Upcoming research calculates county-level damage costs estimates by event for key asset classes—residential, commercial, automotive, public infrastructure, agriculture. This work will feed into a reanalysis for U.S. disaster events (1980-2025) down to $100 million level for seven peril types.