What is the RISKIEST Region in the US as the Climate Changes?

Climate Change is increasing the frequency and severity of natural disasters all around the world. And in the United States, more and more people seem to be moving to the places that are projected to be most impacted by climate change, from hazards such as flooding, wildfire, storms, drought and extreme heat; and leaving the most climate-resilient areas. At first glance, this seems like a bizarre and paradoxical trend. So, for this episode of Weathered, we decided to see if we could get to the bottom of it.

We spoke to experts and sifted through lots of data about moving trends and shifting climate patterns to figure out what’s really going on here and what you can do to avoid moving into harm’s way.

Weathered is a show hosted by weather expert Maiya May and produced by Balance Media that helps explain the most common natural disasters, what causes them, how they’re changing, and what we can do to prepare.

This episode of Weathered is licensed exclusively to YouTube.

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[philmanable]

Moving to Florida to escape climate change is about the least thought out thing I’ve ever heard, changing out fires for hurricanes

[velmapi]

As a Minnesotan, my personal mantra I say to myself whenever I find myself outside in windchill -40 has been “we don’t have earthquakes, we don’t have hurricanes, we don’t have alligators.” I can deal with snow and cold knowing that the infrastructure of my city is built for exactly that.

[robertandleslie]

You might want to consider mapping where in America there is the most political resistance to acting on climate change. It would be very interesting to know how that relates to areas in the country where there is most risk.

[French-Kiss]

I moved from Texas to South Carolina — but not to the coast. I’m in Greenville, which is near the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Since we are on the backside of the mountains, we miss the tornadoes and wild weather that go up from the Gulf of Mexico. We are not near the coast, so we avoid the hurricane risk. It is also slightly cooler here.

[patrickfitzgerald]

I am a survivor of the Paradise, California Camp Fire of November 2018. Every adult living there back then should have known that the town was at high risk of burning completely down. It now has my vote for the highest risk community in the US, because they are rebuilding in EXACTLY the same place and the same way as before . . . we will never learn.

UPDATE: I want to thank all the people who expressed empathy for me and the other survivors/victims of this tragedy. I'd also like to thank those people who have added thoughtful comments about how we as a nation could make more sensible decisions regarding where and how we build our homes. For those people who found it necessary to express their neurotic or psychotic delusions and fantasies in a YouTube comments section, my advice is simple . . . get help.

[FoxVox]

Frankly, the biggest risk here is to people who can’t afford to move and it’s a shame that we’re not talking about that more.

[mellocello]

We moved from Chicago to Los Angeles 22 years ago for my husband’s job. For the first 5 years we didn’t even own a fan, and our central AC was wonky and we didn’t need it anyway. We got a fan when I started having hot flashes. Then over the next few years we got another fan, and another, and a couple of years ago we had our HVAC replaced because we needed the AC. The change has been, no pun, palpable. We went from a joking 72 degrees year round to 90 in the summer and low of 40s in the winter. (We are 4 miles from the beach; the valley gets to 115).

[derrith]

10 years ago we moved from Houston to the upper Midwest. Our risks are different and much less frequesnt.

[blakekuehn]

My wife and I left Los Angeles two years ago and moved to Upper Peninsular Michigan primarily due to wildfires and dwindling water. We now live 3 blocks away from 3% of the world’s freshwater supply. I grew up in TX, went to college in AZ and lived in LA for almost 25 years. Not even close to retirement age and we decided it was time to bail. Don’t regret it at all.

[evenif]

Another thing to keep in mind when thinking about safest areas to live is the government of each state. Which states will invest in shoring up infrastructure to protect against climate change and which will just let key infrastructure fail even if it costs lives (ex. Texas)

[ExpeditionNomadicAdventures]

I was born and raised in the Midwest, where the Mississippi and Missouri rivers rise above homes and tornados remove them from their foundations. But during my career on the East Coast, I witnessed homes built next to and across the street from the oceans on both U.S. Coasts. None of the beachfront homes were elevated like homes along the Midwest rivers.
The Midwest will become a migratory haven for U. S. coastal communities destroyed by rising sea levels and natural disasters.

[ericepperson]

I grew up in Missouri and we were relocated to Houston for my wife's job. Lived there for 8 years, including through Harvey and the big ice storms. Something not even touched on here is the utter lack of preparation that many of these localities have for the increasing natural disasters they are likely to face. Houston has no zoning laws. It's nearly impossible for townships to enforce planning to minimize flooding impacts from hurricanes, tropical storms, or even a big thunderstorm. And the increasing likelihood of winter weather hasn't made any impact towards the entire state of Texas taking steps to winterize it's infamous power grid or consider this factor for planning services. These states are becoming death traps of their own making. It's a huge reason why we eventually moved back north. I'll take a handful of snowy days in a city prepared for them over the risk of extreme wet bulb temps, regular flooding, paralyzing ice storms, hurricanes, and a frankly stupidly short sighted populous.

[MzJugni]

Growing up in Salem, Oregon, I would get frustrated with the seemingly endless season of rain. I recall many 4th of July celebrations being rained out. Then we'd have a few good weeks of sunny weather, and by the time Labor Day rolled around, it was raining again. I even recall summers that didn't feel like summer at all. But now it's becoming more common to have summers with temperatures in the triple digits, months of barely any rain, and a smoky haze from all of the surrounding wildfires. Past me would never have predicted that I'd someday look at the ten-day forecast hoping for rain.

[hallamshire]

After my degree, my partner and I chose to move back to Michigan. It has a depressed economy and bleeds people every year... but every time I watch one of these videos, there is a bit of comfort that we are in a climate resilient area. We bought our house not thinking about the next 5 years, but the next 50.

[jhodapp]

Chicago is looking really really good and one of the reasons I moved here 5 years ago. It also has incredible economic opportunities and is incredibly affordable with amenities not found in most other US cities. We keep building densely and robustly which has kept pricing pretty stable. Lake Michigan is a huge fresh water source that can also produce flooding, but it’s not because of the same reasons as ocean rising. The lake’s total level is relatively controllable via the Chicago River and the huge lock that sits at the mouth of the river and the lake.

[gt]

Zero regrets leaving Florida for upstate NY last year after 18 years for me, and my wife’s entire life. It’s hotter than ever, hurricanes are more frequent and dangerous, and homeowners insurance is spiraling out of control. It’s an untenable, ticking time bomb and it’s going to be ugly when the exodus begins.

[MNature]

Last year, I moved from Raleigh, North Carolina to western Massachusetts, which is more climate resilient. The amount of deforestation taking place in North Carolina, along with the resultant flooding from stormwater runoff, was the last straw for me. You have to think not only about climate change, but also how each individual state deals with environmental concerns. In North Caroina, the environmental laws are weak, allowing developers to deforest large parcels of land, even destroying stream buffers, with little to no consequence. I had to take out FEMA flood insurance after loggers removed 300 acres of trees upstream from me for a mega-subdivision.

[johnpierre]

Doesn’t anybody notice that Hawaii and Alaska are part of the US but are rarely mentioned in programs like this about the US?

[lanszoominternet]

My wife and I grew up in FL. We both hated the summers. The “wet bulb” thing is a reality when the temperature and the humidity are both 95%. We have lived in Southcentral PA for the past 50 years and have no plans to move. We are actually in a low risk spot, although we did have our first tornado last August.

[elizabethlode]

Its so refreshing to see how many people support someone's autonomy over thier own life. Thank you to all the commenter that have shown their support and understanding for those that suffer mental illness. I will be 51 this year, it is a life long struggle for some of us, regardless of what we do to try to alter our existence.