The nations third-hottest year on record is now officially its costliest for billion-dollar natural disasters .

Sixteen major climate- and weather-related catastrophes caused a record $306.2 billion in damages and killed at least 362 people in 2017 as the United States suffered its worst wildfire and hurricane seasons in modern history, according to a report released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Hurricanes created the most damage, totaling $265 billion as Hurricanes Harvey, Maria and Irma racked up a respective $125 billion, $90 billion and $50 billion. Wildfires caused $18 billion in losses, tripling previous annual records.

The new tally shattered the previous 2005 record of $215 billion, driven mostly by Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita. Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall over Houston in late August, is second only to Katrina in for record billion-dollar disasters.

2017 was a historic year for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, Adam Smith, an climatologist at NOAA, said on a call with reporters.

Climate change has made weather events more destructive , with fiercer, more violent storms and prolonged droughts that transformed swaths of the west into tinderboxes, driving up the losses. But part of the problem is that more valuable properties are located on the coasts or near forests. NOAA officials said the analysis did not account for differences between those two factors.