Updated NOAA Disaster Risk Tool Provides Localized Awareness of Hazard Risk

Thanks to a comprehensive update to NOAA’s Billion Dollar Disasters mapping tool, many users can now access local community-level information on hazard risk, exposure, and vulnerability across more than 100 combinations of weather and climate hazards.

The enhanced interactive maps from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) cover all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and provide data for over 72,000 U.S. census tracts. The weather and climate hazards displayed through the tool include severe storms and tornadoes; drought events and heat waves; hurricanes and tropical storms; wildfires; river-basin and urban flooding; and winter storms, freeze events, and cold waves. “The updated tool will provide a better understanding of how weather, ocean, and climate disasters impact many Americans at the community level, and help guide targeted preparation and mitigation efforts as we build a Climate-Ready Nation,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D.  The new tool comes at a time when the number and cost of billion-dollar disasters in the U.S. are rising. From January to June 2022, the U.S. has already been impacted by nine separate billion-dollar disasters, a busy start to the year. Read more and access the tool via NOAA.