UPDATE (June 2016):
While Americans are concerned about climate change, the consequences are not always perceived as urgent or an immediate priority. Environment America updated its extreme weather map to feature stories of those impacted by climate change across the U.S. The map includes county-level disaster data combined with personal accounts to show how climate change is already affecting communities.
(February 2012)
Extreme weather events are becoming increasingly common in the United States and around the world. Climate change is likely to continue to exacerbate the severity and frequency of these events. A new report released by Environment America, In the Path of the Storm: Global Warming, Extreme Weather, and the Impacts of Weather-Related Disasters in the United States, shows that 4 out of 5 Americans have experienced weather-related disasters in the last 6 years, which negatively affect local economies and public heath and safety.
To accompany the report, Environment America also developed an interactive map of extreme weather events based on data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The map allows users to see how weather-related disasters have been distributed across the nation in recent years. Users can also use the zoom tool to view the number of specific events that have occurred in their county since 2006, including coastal storms, fires, floods, severe freezes, hurricanes, severe ice storms, severe storms, snow storms and tornadoes.
For more information about the findings, check out the report.
