Synopsis

The study and analysis of storm data is important to both public health and economic problems for communities and municipalities in order to tracks the characteristics of major storms and weather events in the United States. The analysis of storm data by tools such as the R ecosystem will allow to predict when and where these storms will occur, and will try to determine estimates of any fatalities, injuries, and property damage.

set the working directory

setwd("~/DS/datasciencecoursera/reproducible-research/reproducible-research-Week4-Project")

Library Loading

library(“R.utils”) library(“ggplot2”) library(“gridExtra”)

Data Loading

get the link to the compressed file and download the “Storm Data” read the “Storm Data” file into a data frame

#url <- "https://d396qusza40orc.cloustormDataront.net/repdata%2Fdata%2FStormData.csv.bz2"
#download.file(url, "StormData.csv.bz2")
#
stormData <- read.csv("StormData.csv.bz2", header = TRUE)
library("R.utils")
## Loading required package: R.oo
## Loading required package: R.methodsS3
## R.methodsS3 v1.7.1 (2016-02-15) successfully loaded. See ?R.methodsS3 for help.
## R.oo v1.21.0 (2016-10-30) successfully loaded. See ?R.oo for help.
## 
## Attaching package: 'R.oo'
## The following objects are masked from 'package:methods':
## 
##     getClasses, getMethods
## The following objects are masked from 'package:base':
## 
##     attach, detach, gc, load, save
## R.utils v2.6.0 (2017-11-04) successfully loaded. See ?R.utils for help.
## 
## Attaching package: 'R.utils'
## The following object is masked from 'package:utils':
## 
##     timestamp
## The following objects are masked from 'package:base':
## 
##     cat, commandArgs, getOption, inherits, isOpen, parse, warnings
# Extract file if needed and read the storm data
if (!exists("stormData")) {
  
  if (file.exists("repdata_data_StormData.csv.bz2")) {
    if (!file.exists("repdata_data_StormData.csv")) {
      bunzip2("repdata_data_StormData.csv.bz2", overwrite = F)
    }
    
    stormData <- read.csv("repdata_data_StormData.csv", sep = ",")
  }
  
}

Data Processing and Analysis

Get to know the data to analyse

data(stormData)
## Warning in data(stormData): data set 'stormData' not found
dim(stormData)
## [1] 902297     37
str(stormData)
## 'data.frame':    902297 obs. of  37 variables:
##  $ STATE__   : num  1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
##  $ BGN_DATE  : Factor w/ 16335 levels "1/1/1966 0:00:00",..: 6523 6523 4242 11116 2224 2224 2260 383 3980 3980 ...
##  $ BGN_TIME  : Factor w/ 3608 levels "00:00:00 AM",..: 272 287 2705 1683 2584 3186 242 1683 3186 3186 ...
##  $ TIME_ZONE : Factor w/ 22 levels "ADT","AKS","AST",..: 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 ...
##  $ COUNTY    : num  97 3 57 89 43 77 9 123 125 57 ...
##  $ COUNTYNAME: Factor w/ 29601 levels "","5NM E OF MACKINAC BRIDGE TO PRESQUE ISLE LT MI",..: 13513 1873 4598 10592 4372 10094 1973 23873 24418 4598 ...
##  $ STATE     : Factor w/ 72 levels "AK","AL","AM",..: 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 ...
##  $ EVTYPE    : Factor w/ 985 levels "   HIGH SURF ADVISORY",..: 834 834 834 834 834 834 834 834 834 834 ...
##  $ BGN_RANGE : num  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ...
##  $ BGN_AZI   : Factor w/ 35 levels "","  N"," NW",..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
##  $ BGN_LOCATI: Factor w/ 54429 levels ""," Christiansburg",..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
##  $ END_DATE  : Factor w/ 6663 levels "","1/1/1993 0:00:00",..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
##  $ END_TIME  : Factor w/ 3647 levels ""," 0900CST",..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
##  $ COUNTY_END: num  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ...
##  $ COUNTYENDN: logi  NA NA NA NA NA NA ...
##  $ END_RANGE : num  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ...
##  $ END_AZI   : Factor w/ 24 levels "","E","ENE","ESE",..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
##  $ END_LOCATI: Factor w/ 34506 levels ""," CANTON"," TULIA",..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
##  $ LENGTH    : num  14 2 0.1 0 0 1.5 1.5 0 3.3 2.3 ...
##  $ WIDTH     : num  100 150 123 100 150 177 33 33 100 100 ...
##  $ F         : int  3 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 3 3 ...
##  $ MAG       : num  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ...
##  $ FATALITIES: num  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 ...
##  $ INJURIES  : num  15 0 2 2 2 6 1 0 14 0 ...
##  $ PROPDMG   : num  25 2.5 25 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 25 25 ...
##  $ PROPDMGEXP: Factor w/ 19 levels "","-","?","+",..: 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 ...
##  $ CROPDMG   : num  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ...
##  $ CROPDMGEXP: Factor w/ 9 levels "","?","0","2",..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
##  $ WFO       : Factor w/ 542 levels ""," CI","%SD",..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
##  $ STATEOFFIC: Factor w/ 250 levels "","ALABAMA, Central",..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
##  $ ZONENAMES : Factor w/ 25112 levels "","                                                                                                                               "| __truncated__,..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
##  $ LATITUDE  : num  3040 3042 3340 3458 3412 ...
##  $ LONGITUDE : num  8812 8755 8742 8626 8642 ...
##  $ LATITUDE_E: num  3051 0 0 0 0 ...
##  $ LONGITUDE_: num  8806 0 0 0 0 ...
##  $ REMARKS   : Factor w/ 436781 levels "","\t","\t\t",..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
##  $ REFNUM    : num  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ...
names(stormData)
##  [1] "STATE__"    "BGN_DATE"   "BGN_TIME"   "TIME_ZONE"  "COUNTY"    
##  [6] "COUNTYNAME" "STATE"      "EVTYPE"     "BGN_RANGE"  "BGN_AZI"   
## [11] "BGN_LOCATI" "END_DATE"   "END_TIME"   "COUNTY_END" "COUNTYENDN"
## [16] "END_RANGE"  "END_AZI"    "END_LOCATI" "LENGTH"     "WIDTH"     
## [21] "F"          "MAG"        "FATALITIES" "INJURIES"   "PROPDMG"   
## [26] "PROPDMGEXP" "CROPDMG"    "CROPDMGEXP" "WFO"        "STATEOFFIC"
## [31] "ZONENAMES"  "LATITUDE"   "LONGITUDE"  "LATITUDE_E" "LONGITUDE_"
## [36] "REMARKS"    "REFNUM"

Get a summary of the data

summary(stormData)
##     STATE__                  BGN_DATE             BGN_TIME     
##  Min.   : 1.0   5/25/2011 0:00:00:  1202   12:00:00 AM: 10163  
##  1st Qu.:19.0   4/27/2011 0:00:00:  1193   06:00:00 PM:  7350  
##  Median :30.0   6/9/2011 0:00:00 :  1030   04:00:00 PM:  7261  
##  Mean   :31.2   5/30/2004 0:00:00:  1016   05:00:00 PM:  6891  
##  3rd Qu.:45.0   4/4/2011 0:00:00 :  1009   12:00:00 PM:  6703  
##  Max.   :95.0   4/2/2006 0:00:00 :   981   03:00:00 PM:  6700  
##                 (Other)          :895866   (Other)    :857229  
##    TIME_ZONE          COUNTY           COUNTYNAME         STATE       
##  CST    :547493   Min.   :  0.0   JEFFERSON :  7840   TX     : 83728  
##  EST    :245558   1st Qu.: 31.0   WASHINGTON:  7603   KS     : 53440  
##  MST    : 68390   Median : 75.0   JACKSON   :  6660   OK     : 46802  
##  PST    : 28302   Mean   :100.6   FRANKLIN  :  6256   MO     : 35648  
##  AST    :  6360   3rd Qu.:131.0   LINCOLN   :  5937   IA     : 31069  
##  HST    :  2563   Max.   :873.0   MADISON   :  5632   NE     : 30271  
##  (Other):  3631                   (Other)   :862369   (Other):621339  
##                EVTYPE         BGN_RANGE           BGN_AZI      
##  HAIL             :288661   Min.   :   0.000          :547332  
##  TSTM WIND        :219940   1st Qu.:   0.000   N      : 86752  
##  THUNDERSTORM WIND: 82563   Median :   0.000   W      : 38446  
##  TORNADO          : 60652   Mean   :   1.484   S      : 37558  
##  FLASH FLOOD      : 54277   3rd Qu.:   1.000   E      : 33178  
##  FLOOD            : 25326   Max.   :3749.000   NW     : 24041  
##  (Other)          :170878                      (Other):134990  
##          BGN_LOCATI                  END_DATE             END_TIME     
##               :287743                    :243411              :238978  
##  COUNTYWIDE   : 19680   4/27/2011 0:00:00:  1214   06:00:00 PM:  9802  
##  Countywide   :   993   5/25/2011 0:00:00:  1196   05:00:00 PM:  8314  
##  SPRINGFIELD  :   843   6/9/2011 0:00:00 :  1021   04:00:00 PM:  8104  
##  SOUTH PORTION:   810   4/4/2011 0:00:00 :  1007   12:00:00 PM:  7483  
##  NORTH PORTION:   784   5/30/2004 0:00:00:   998   11:59:00 PM:  7184  
##  (Other)      :591444   (Other)          :653450   (Other)    :622432  
##    COUNTY_END COUNTYENDN       END_RANGE           END_AZI      
##  Min.   :0    Mode:logical   Min.   :  0.0000          :724837  
##  1st Qu.:0    NA's:902297    1st Qu.:  0.0000   N      : 28082  
##  Median :0                   Median :  0.0000   S      : 22510  
##  Mean   :0                   Mean   :  0.9862   W      : 20119  
##  3rd Qu.:0                   3rd Qu.:  0.0000   E      : 20047  
##  Max.   :0                   Max.   :925.0000   NE     : 14606  
##                                                 (Other): 72096  
##            END_LOCATI         LENGTH              WIDTH         
##                 :499225   Min.   :   0.0000   Min.   :   0.000  
##  COUNTYWIDE     : 19731   1st Qu.:   0.0000   1st Qu.:   0.000  
##  SOUTH PORTION  :   833   Median :   0.0000   Median :   0.000  
##  NORTH PORTION  :   780   Mean   :   0.2301   Mean   :   7.503  
##  CENTRAL PORTION:   617   3rd Qu.:   0.0000   3rd Qu.:   0.000  
##  SPRINGFIELD    :   575   Max.   :2315.0000   Max.   :4400.000  
##  (Other)        :380536                                         
##        F               MAG            FATALITIES          INJURIES        
##  Min.   :0.0      Min.   :    0.0   Min.   :  0.0000   Min.   :   0.0000  
##  1st Qu.:0.0      1st Qu.:    0.0   1st Qu.:  0.0000   1st Qu.:   0.0000  
##  Median :1.0      Median :   50.0   Median :  0.0000   Median :   0.0000  
##  Mean   :0.9      Mean   :   46.9   Mean   :  0.0168   Mean   :   0.1557  
##  3rd Qu.:1.0      3rd Qu.:   75.0   3rd Qu.:  0.0000   3rd Qu.:   0.0000  
##  Max.   :5.0      Max.   :22000.0   Max.   :583.0000   Max.   :1700.0000  
##  NA's   :843563                                                           
##     PROPDMG          PROPDMGEXP        CROPDMG          CROPDMGEXP    
##  Min.   :   0.00          :465934   Min.   :  0.000          :618413  
##  1st Qu.:   0.00   K      :424665   1st Qu.:  0.000   K      :281832  
##  Median :   0.00   M      : 11330   Median :  0.000   M      :  1994  
##  Mean   :  12.06   0      :   216   Mean   :  1.527   k      :    21  
##  3rd Qu.:   0.50   B      :    40   3rd Qu.:  0.000   0      :    19  
##  Max.   :5000.00   5      :    28   Max.   :990.000   B      :     9  
##                    (Other):    84                     (Other):     9  
##       WFO                                       STATEOFFIC    
##         :142069                                      :248769  
##  OUN    : 17393   TEXAS, North                       : 12193  
##  JAN    : 13889   ARKANSAS, Central and North Central: 11738  
##  LWX    : 13174   IOWA, Central                      : 11345  
##  PHI    : 12551   KANSAS, Southwest                  : 11212  
##  TSA    : 12483   GEORGIA, North and Central         : 11120  
##  (Other):690738   (Other)                            :595920  
##                                                                                                                                                                                                     ZONENAMES     
##                                                                                                                                                                                                          :594029  
##                                                                                                                                                                                                          :205988  
##  GREATER RENO / CARSON CITY / M - GREATER RENO / CARSON CITY / M                                                                                                                                         :   639  
##  GREATER LAKE TAHOE AREA - GREATER LAKE TAHOE AREA                                                                                                                                                       :   592  
##  JEFFERSON - JEFFERSON                                                                                                                                                                                   :   303  
##  MADISON - MADISON                                                                                                                                                                                       :   302  
##  (Other)                                                                                                                                                                                                 :100444  
##     LATITUDE      LONGITUDE        LATITUDE_E     LONGITUDE_    
##  Min.   :   0   Min.   :-14451   Min.   :   0   Min.   :-14455  
##  1st Qu.:2802   1st Qu.:  7247   1st Qu.:   0   1st Qu.:     0  
##  Median :3540   Median :  8707   Median :   0   Median :     0  
##  Mean   :2875   Mean   :  6940   Mean   :1452   Mean   :  3509  
##  3rd Qu.:4019   3rd Qu.:  9605   3rd Qu.:3549   3rd Qu.:  8735  
##  Max.   :9706   Max.   : 17124   Max.   :9706   Max.   :106220  
##  NA's   :47                      NA's   :40                     
##                                            REMARKS           REFNUM      
##                                                :287433   Min.   :     1  
##                                                : 24013   1st Qu.:225575  
##  Trees down.\n                                 :  1110   Median :451149  
##  Several trees were blown down.\n              :   568   Mean   :451149  
##  Trees were downed.\n                          :   446   3rd Qu.:676723  
##  Large trees and power lines were blown down.\n:   432   Max.   :902297  
##  (Other)                                       :588295
head(stormData)
##   STATE__           BGN_DATE BGN_TIME TIME_ZONE COUNTY COUNTYNAME STATE
## 1       1  4/18/1950 0:00:00     0130       CST     97     MOBILE    AL
## 2       1  4/18/1950 0:00:00     0145       CST      3    BALDWIN    AL
## 3       1  2/20/1951 0:00:00     1600       CST     57    FAYETTE    AL
## 4       1   6/8/1951 0:00:00     0900       CST     89    MADISON    AL
## 5       1 11/15/1951 0:00:00     1500       CST     43    CULLMAN    AL
## 6       1 11/15/1951 0:00:00     2000       CST     77 LAUDERDALE    AL
##    EVTYPE BGN_RANGE BGN_AZI BGN_LOCATI END_DATE END_TIME COUNTY_END
## 1 TORNADO         0                                               0
## 2 TORNADO         0                                               0
## 3 TORNADO         0                                               0
## 4 TORNADO         0                                               0
## 5 TORNADO         0                                               0
## 6 TORNADO         0                                               0
##   COUNTYENDN END_RANGE END_AZI END_LOCATI LENGTH WIDTH F MAG FATALITIES
## 1         NA         0                      14.0   100 3   0          0
## 2         NA         0                       2.0   150 2   0          0
## 3         NA         0                       0.1   123 2   0          0
## 4         NA         0                       0.0   100 2   0          0
## 5         NA         0                       0.0   150 2   0          0
## 6         NA         0                       1.5   177 2   0          0
##   INJURIES PROPDMG PROPDMGEXP CROPDMG CROPDMGEXP WFO STATEOFFIC ZONENAMES
## 1       15    25.0          K       0                                    
## 2        0     2.5          K       0                                    
## 3        2    25.0          K       0                                    
## 4        2     2.5          K       0                                    
## 5        2     2.5          K       0                                    
## 6        6     2.5          K       0                                    
##   LATITUDE LONGITUDE LATITUDE_E LONGITUDE_ REMARKS REFNUM
## 1     3040      8812       3051       8806              1
## 2     3042      8755          0          0              2
## 3     3340      8742          0          0              3
## 4     3458      8626          0          0              4
## 5     3412      8642          0          0              5
## 6     3450      8748          0          0              6

Data Cleaning

Since we are concerned by the event types that have a bad impact on health and economy, we select the data pertaining to those ones only

stormSubset <- stormData[,c(8,23:28)]
str(stormSubset)
## 'data.frame':    902297 obs. of  7 variables:
##  $ EVTYPE    : Factor w/ 985 levels "   HIGH SURF ADVISORY",..: 834 834 834 834 834 834 834 834 834 834 ...
##  $ FATALITIES: num  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 ...
##  $ INJURIES  : num  15 0 2 2 2 6 1 0 14 0 ...
##  $ PROPDMG   : num  25 2.5 25 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 25 25 ...
##  $ PROPDMGEXP: Factor w/ 19 levels "","-","?","+",..: 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 ...
##  $ CROPDMG   : num  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ...
##  $ CROPDMGEXP: Factor w/ 9 levels "","?","0","2",..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
fatalities <- aggregate(stormSubset$FATALITIES, by = list(stormSubset$EVTYPE), FUN = sum)
injuries <- aggregate(stormSubset$INJURIES, by = list(stormSubset$EVTYPE), FUN = sum)
dataSubset <- cbind(fatalities, injuries[, 2])
colnames(dataSubset) <- c("type", "fatalities", "injuries")

show some of the event types and their numbers

head(unique(stormSubset$EVTYPE), 20)
##  [1] TORNADO                   TSTM WIND                
##  [3] HAIL                      FREEZING RAIN            
##  [5] SNOW                      ICE STORM/FLASH FLOOD    
##  [7] SNOW/ICE                  WINTER STORM             
##  [9] HURRICANE OPAL/HIGH WINDS THUNDERSTORM WINDS       
## [11] RECORD COLD               HURRICANE ERIN           
## [13] HURRICANE OPAL            HEAVY RAIN               
## [15] LIGHTNING                 THUNDERSTORM WIND        
## [17] DENSE FOG                 RIP CURRENT              
## [19] THUNDERSTORM WINS         FLASH FLOOD              
## 985 Levels:    HIGH SURF ADVISORY  COASTAL FLOOD ... WND
length(unique(stormSubset$EVTYPE))
## [1] 985

Events that are most harmful to population health

sortedData_fatalities <- dataSubset[order(-dataSubset$fatalities), ]
sortedData_injuries <- dataSubset[order(-dataSubset$injuries), ]

A look to the sorted data by descending numbers in fatalities and injuries

head(sortedData_fatalities[, 1:2])
##               type fatalities
## 834        TORNADO       5633
## 130 EXCESSIVE HEAT       1903
## 153    FLASH FLOOD        978
## 275           HEAT        937
## 464      LIGHTNING        816
## 856      TSTM WIND        504
head(sortedData_injuries[,c(1, 3)])
##               type injuries
## 834        TORNADO    91346
## 856      TSTM WIND     6957
## 170          FLOOD     6789
## 130 EXCESSIVE HEAT     6525
## 464      LIGHTNING     5230
## 275           HEAT     2100

Results

From the above numbers tornados are the most devastatrice to the population

Events that are most harmful to the population with respect to health

Plots

par(mar = c(5, 4, 4, 5) + 0.1)
plot(sortedData_fatalities[1:10, 2], type = "b", col = "green", ylab = "")
text(sortedData_fatalities[1:10, 2], row.names(sortedData_fatalities[1:10, ]), 
    cex = 0.8, pos = 3, col = "green")
mtext("fatalities", side = 2, line = 3)
par(new = TRUE)
plot(sortedData_injuries[1:10, 3], type = "b", col = "blue", xaxt = "n", yaxt = "n", 
    xlab = "", ylab = "")
text(sortedData_injuries[1:10, 3], row.names(sortedData_injuries[1:10, ]), cex = 0.8, 
    pos = 1, col = "blue")
axis(4)
mtext("injuries", side = 4, line = 3)
grid()
legend("topright", col = c("green", "blue"), lty = 1, legend = c("fatalites", 
    "injuries"))

Events that have the greatest economic consequences

From the “National Weather Service Storm Data Documentation” in page 12 the units corresponding to the letters are given:

“Alphabetical characters used to signify magnitude include “K” for thousands, “M” for millions, and “B” for billions.” The variables “PROPDMGEXP” and “CROPDMGEXP represent the property and crop damage and the letters mentioned above are used as multipliers for the magnitude of the damages.

The list of the multipliers is shown below

unique(stormSubset$PROPDMGEXP)
##  [1] K M   B m + 0 5 6 ? 4 2 3 h 7 H - 1 8
## Levels:  - ? + 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 B h H K m M
unique(stormSubset$CROPDMGEXP)
## [1]   M K m B ? 0 k 2
## Levels:  ? 0 2 B k K m M
table(stormSubset$PROPDMGEXP)
## 
##             -      ?      +      0      1      2      3      4      5 
## 465934      1      8      5    216     25     13      4      4     28 
##      6      7      8      B      h      H      K      m      M 
##      4      5      1     40      1      6 424665      7  11330
table(stormSubset$CROPDMGEXP)
## 
##             ?      0      2      B      k      K      m      M 
## 618413      7     19      1      9     21 281832      1   1994

We compute the damages values using the multipliers shown above

stormSubset$PROPDMG[stormSubset$PROPDMGEXP == ""] <- stormSubset$PROPDMG[stormSubset$PROPDMGEXP == ""] * 
        1
    stormSubset$PROPDMG[stormSubset$PROPDMGEXP == "h"] <- stormSubset$PROPDMG[stormSubset$PROPDMGEXP == 
        "h"] * 100
    stormSubset$PROPDMG[stormSubset$PROPDMGEXP == "k"] <- stormSubset$PROPDMG[stormSubset$PROPDMGEXP == 
        "k"] * 1000
    stormSubset$PROPDMG[stormSubset$PROPDMGEXP == "m"] <- stormSubset$PROPDMG[stormSubset$PROPDMGEXP == 
        "m"] * 1e+06
    stormSubset$PROPDMG[stormSubset$PROPDMGEXP == "B"] <- stormSubset$PROPDMG[stormSubset$PROPDMGEXP == 
        "B"] * 1e+09
    stormSubset$CROPDMG[stormSubset$CROPDMGEXP == ""] <- stormSubset$CROPDMG[stormSubset$CROPDMGEXP == ""] * 
        1
    stormSubset$CROPDMG[stormSubset$CROPDMGEXP == "h"] <- stormSubset$CROPDMG[stormSubset$CROPDMGEXP == 
        "h"] * 100
    stormSubset$CROPDMG[stormSubset$CROPDMGEXP == "k"] <- stormSubset$CROPDMG[stormSubset$CROPDMGEXP == 
        "k"] * 1000
    stormSubset$CROPDMG[stormSubset$CROPDMGEXP == "m"] <- stormSubset$CROPDMG[stormSubset$CROPDMGEXP == 
        "m"] * 1e+06
    stormSubset$CROPDMG[stormSubset$CROPDMGEXP == "B"] <- stormSubset$CROPDMG[stormSubset$CROPDMGEXP == 
        "B"] * 1e+09

Produce the damaged property and crop data

propdmg <- aggregate(stormSubset$PROPDMG, by = list(stormSubset$EVTYPE), FUN = sum)
cropdmg <- aggregate(stormSubset$CROPDMG, by = list(stormSubset$EVTYPE), FUN = sum)
stormSubset3 <- cbind(propdmg, cropdmg[, 2])
colnames(stormSubset3) <- c("type", "propdmg", "cropdmg")

### Sort the resulting data in descending order
stormSubset3_propdmg <- stormSubset3[order(-stormSubset3$propdmg), ]
stormSubset3_cropdmg <- stormSubset3[order(-stormSubset3$cropdmg), ]

Plot the resulting data

par(mar = c(5, 4, 4, 5) + 0.1)
plot(stormSubset3_propdmg[1:10, 2], type = "b", col = "red", ylab = "")
mtext("propdmg in USD", side = 2, line = 3)
text(stormSubset3_propdmg[1:10, 2], row.names(stormSubset3_propdmg[1:10, ]), cex = 0.8, 
    pos = 1, col = "red")
par(new = TRUE)
plot(stormSubset3_cropdmg[1:10, 3], type = "b", col = "green", xaxt = "n", yaxt = "n", 
    xlab = "", ylab = "")
text(stormSubset3_cropdmg[1:10, 3], row.names(stormSubset3_cropdmg[1:10, ]), cex = 0.8, 
    pos = 3, col = "green")
axis(4)
mtext("cropdmg in USD", side = 4, line = 3)
grid()
legend("top", col = c("red", "green"), lty = 1, legend = c("propdmg", "cropdmg"))

Conclusion

head(sortedData_fatalities[, 1:2])
##               type fatalities
## 834        TORNADO       5633
## 130 EXCESSIVE HEAT       1903
## 153    FLASH FLOOD        978
## 275           HEAT        937
## 464      LIGHTNING        816
## 856      TSTM WIND        504
head(sortedData_injuries[,c(1, 3)])
##               type injuries
## 834        TORNADO    91346
## 856      TSTM WIND     6957
## 170          FLOOD     6789
## 130 EXCESSIVE HEAT     6525
## 464      LIGHTNING     5230
## 275           HEAT     2100

The above data and the graphs show that:

  1. Tornado and Heat are the most harmful events on fatalities and injuries.
  2. Flood and Hurricane are the most harmful events on property damage and crop damage.