Natural disasters in the United States (2024)

Milhaud 2026-02-02
Natural disasters in the United States (2024)

This map, created by Chenxiao Guo in 2024, shows the most common natural disasters in the United States.

This is a great work that combines cartography with a clever way of visualising data. The author consolidates the prevalence of seven natural disasters in the United States into a single map, using a different colour for each one:

  • Droughts (yellow), with data between 2000 and 2021.
  • Hail (green), with data from 1950 to 2021.
  • Hurricanes (light blue), with data between 1950 and 2021.
  • Floods (dark blue), with data between 1950 and 2021.
  • Tornadoes (purple), with data between 1900 and 2021.
  • Forest fires (red), measuring average risk.
  • Earthquakes (grey), with data from 1950 to 2021.

For the representation, Guo takes hexagons of equal size and on each of them draws a circle with the seven colours superimposed, using more intensity the more prevalent they are. This shows at a glance how droughts and forest fires are most common on the west coast, floods and tornadoes on the Mississippi plains, hurricanes and floods in the southeast, and earthquakes in Alaska and California.

Also, to make it easier to read about the impact of these natural disasters, the author incorporates information on how populated each hexagon is, using a darker border for the most populated areas.

Sources

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