How Texas compares on climate disasters
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Texas has recently fared better than neighboring Louisiana and Oklahoma when it comes to weathering climate-related disasters. But we're not immune to the many effects of human-caused climate change.
Why it matters: Some regions of the U.S. are safer from climate-fueled extreme weather events than others, but no area will go untouched, Axios' Ben German writes.
Zoom out: The map above shows major disasters declared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the past two decades — a snapshot that ranges from hurricanes and severe storms to wildfires and drought.
Zoom in: Below, check out a county-by-county look at the weather disasters over the past two decades in Texas.
- The long Texas coastline is vulnerable to hurricanes and tropical storms, but climate change is making their impacts worse, Axios' Andrew Freedman writes.
- Storms are now dropping more rainfall, on average, than they used to, with the deadliest example seen in the Houston area during Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
In addition, such storms are able to tap into warmer ocean waters and add moisture to the air to rapidly intensify before hitting land.
