Adam Smith

Adam Smith is Climate Central’s senior climate impacts scientist, leading the redevelopment of the U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters research.

Smith brings two decades of experience from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information—Climate Science and Services Division. For 15 years, he served as the lead scientist for NOAA’s U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters program.

Smith also led NOAA’s Industry Proving Ground projects, working closely with the private Re/insurance sector to meet their hazard information needs. This included developing tools such as the U.S. Storm Events Database enhancement, a U.S. sub-billion-dollar disaster framework, and the Event Footprint Catalogue, all informed by industry recommendations.

He has briefed the Science for Disaster Reduction working group for more than a decade on U.S. disaster costs and served as NOAA’s expert representative on U.S. disaster loss data in support of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2016–2024). Additionally, Smith contributed to the American Meteorological Society’s Committee on Financial Weather Risk Management (2015–2026) and the interagency Hazards and Natural Capital Accounting Working Group.

Internationally, Smith has represented the U.S. on research teams and expert panels for organizations such as the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the International Science Council, and Integrated Research on Disaster Risk, helping to develop and refine global disaster impact frameworks.