Storm Events and Public Health: Geospatial analysis of severe weather events from NOAA storm database

Having survived hurricane Sandy in Mid-Atlantic and a few Northeasters in New England, I was inclined to understand the historical cost of the severe weather events, both for Public Health and Economy.Here I present the detailed analysis of the data provided by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) storm database to determine the storm events that cause highest economic and public health consequences in the United States.

The results presented here suggests that tornadoes are the most harmful weather event that is associated with over 5000 death and 75000 injuries across the U.S between 1950 and 2011. On the other hand, flood is determined as the leading severe weather event that is linked to the highest property damage, costing approximately 150 billion U.S dollars in the same period. In terms of U.S. agriculture, drought has a bigger impact on the crop damage, resulting in a loss of nearly 15 billion U.S dollars. Finally, I also present the geospatial distribution of these severe weather events to demonstrate their relative impact on public health and economy across different states. These observations might facilitate the decision making of government authorities and allow prioritization of resources to prepare for different types of severe weather events.