MiRCH Update: Military Responses to Climate Disasters across the United States
Publisher: Center for Climate and Security
Author(s): Tom Ellison
Date: 2025
Topics: Climate Change, Disasters, Humanitarian Assistance
Countries: Canada, Mexico, United States
The Center for Climate and Security’s (CCS) Military Responses to Climate Hazards (MiRCH) tracker now includes 501 deployments in 97 countries between June 2022 and February 2025–averaging more than one every two days. In light of the military response to January’s devastating wildfires in California and ongoing policy debates about US domestic disaster relief, now is a good time to analyze what MiRCH tells us about military responses to disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding within the United States.
Overall, US MiRCH data since 2022 shows 176 military deployments to floods, fires, and hurricanes across about three-quarters of US states and territories. Readers can explore the data further by clicking on the visualizations below.
In the United States, military deployments for domestic disaster relief are predominantly the purview of state National Guard branches, which account for 78% of US MiRCH deployments. US Department of Defense assets augment the Guard when needed, including the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines, and Navy. January’s southern California wildfires marked the first time since June 2022 that third-country militaries assisted the United States with climate disaster relief, when Mexico and Canada contributed (though Canada, Mexico, and other foreign partner militaries have contributed to US disaster relief in the past).