Weather
Weather WisdomWeather Wisdom - Friday, July 31, 2009By Craig Koplien (WTMJ)
Researchers at the University of South Carolina recently completed a study that revealed which natural disaster poses the greatest risk to American lives. The results may be different than you expect.
According to the study, which focused on the years 1970-2004, excessive heat killed more Americans than any other natural disaster. Excessive heat was responsible for 19.6% of the natural disaster deaths during that period. Next were summer thunderstorms which caused 18.8% of the deaths. In third place was winter weather, which was responsible for 18.1%.
The researchers determined that the South is most susceptible to deadly disasters due to the combination of heat and severe thunderstorms.
You may be surprised to learn that hurricanes and tropical storms accounted for only 1.5% of the deaths. Given the television coverage that land-falling hurricanes tend to get on the national news, you might think that number would be higher.
The report concluded that “highly destructive, highly publicized, often catastrophic singular events such as hurricanes and earthquakes are responsible for relatively few deaths when compared to the more frequent, less catastrophic events such as heat waves and severe thunderstorms”.
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