Reference
How to read a place page
Every place page has the same ten sections in the same order. Here is what each one shows.
The map and headline
The dark opening map is drawn from the record itself. Green lines are tornado paths since 1950, blue lines are tropical cyclone tracks that passed within 100 miles, and orange shapes are the perimeters of large wildfires since 1984. The brightest blue tracks and labels mark the strongest storms to pass within 50 miles; the brightest green paths mark the strongest tornadoes. On a city page, the dashed circle shows the 25-mile radius used for tornadoes and fires.
The sentence beneath the place name is written from the numbers. It leads with the hazard on which the place stands highest nationally.
The fingerprint
The eight-spoke figure compares the county with every other U.S. county on eight hazards: tornadoes, tropical cyclones, wildfire, flood, hail and wind, heat, cold and winter weather. The further a point sits from the centre, the higher the county ranks among counties where that hazard occurs. Two counties with the same shape have similar hazard profiles. The methodology lists the measure behind each spoke.
At a glance
Eight numbers summarise the record. The first two are the place’s leading hazards. Where a number has a rank, it compares the county with the other counties in its state. The italic line under each number puts it in context: how often, how it compares with the typical county, or when it happened.
The hazard sections
Tornadoes, tropical cyclones, wildfire, floods and severe weather each have a section. Most begin with record callouts (the strongest, deadliest or most recent), then a chart over time, then a table of every event. Tables show the first 25 rows; “Show all” reveals the rest, and every column header sorts the table.
Two cautions apply throughout. Casualty figures for tornadoes are for the whole path, which may cross county lines. And earlier decades are less complete: weak tornadoes before the 1990s and storms at sea before about 1900 were often missed. If a hazard has never been recorded in a place, its section says so in one line.
Weather records
Records come from one long-running weather station, named on the page with its distance from the population centre. The section shows all-time highs and lows, the wettest and snowiest days, the hottest and coldest years, a monthly climate chart for the last 30 years, a yearly count of hot days (or freezing nights in cooler places), and, where it snows, the median dates of the first and last snow.
Comparisons
“How this compares” ranks the county against its state and the nation on twelve measures, and lists its neighbours so you can see whether a pattern is local or regional. Each neighbour links to its own page.
What the record cannot tell you
A place page is history. It does not predict what will happen to any one property, and a place with a quiet record can still be struck. For flood risk at an address, consult FEMA’s flood maps and your insurer; for current warnings, the National Weather Service.