Severe Weather Events in the United States: Impacts on Population Health and the Economy

Synopsis

Severe weather events pose significant risks to public safety and economic stability across the United States. This analysis explores data from the NOAA Storm Database to identify which types of weather events are most harmful to population health and which have the greatest economic consequences. Population health impacts are measured using fatalities and injuries, while economic impacts are assessed using property and crop damage estimates. The results show that a small number of event types account for a large proportion of overall harm and damage. Understanding these patterns can help decision-makers prioritize preparedness and resource allocation for severe weather events.

Data Processing

The data for this analysis come from the NOAA Storm Database and are provided as a compressed CSV file. The dataset is loaded directly from the raw file and processed entirely within this document.

Processing population health data

For population health impacts, fatalities and injuries are summed for each event type.

Processing economic damage data

Property and crop damage values use exponent codes (K, M, B) to represent thousands, millions, and billions of dollars. These values are converted to numeric form before aggregation.

Results 1. Weather events most harmful to population health

The following figure shows the top 10 event types responsible for the greatest number of fatalities and injuries.

Interpretation: Events such as tornadoes and excessive heat account for the largest impacts on population health, causing the highest combined number of injuries and fatalities.

2. Weather events with the greatest economic consequences

The following figure shows the top 10 event types with the highest combined property and crop damage costs.

Interpretation: Floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes result in the greatest economic losses, largely due to extensive property damage and infrastructure disruption.

Conclusion

This analysis demonstrates that severe weather events have highly uneven impacts across event types. Tornadoes and excessive heat pose the greatest risks to population health, while floods and hurricanes result in the most significant economic damage. These findings highlight the importance of targeted preparedness strategies that focus on the most damaging and dangerous types of severe weather events.