Extreme weather disasters are increasing

The annual incidence of #ExtremeWeatherEvents (EWE) appears to be #increasing.

METHODS

A historical database (1969-2018) was created from the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) to include all disasters caused by seven EWE hazards (i.e. cyclones, droughts floods, heatwaves, landslides, cold weather and storms). The annual incidence of EWE hazards and rates of exposure,

morbidity and mortality were calculated. Regression analysis and ANOVA calculations were performed to evaluate the association between the exposure rate and the hazard incidence rate as well as the association between morbidity and mortality incidence rates and rates of human

exposure and annual EWE #incidence.

RESULTS:

During 1969-2018, 10,009 EWE disasters caused 2,037,415 deaths and 3,998,466 cases of disease. A reported 7,350,276,440 persons required immediate assistance. Floods and storms were the most common. Most (89%) of EWE-related #disastermortality was caused by #storms, #droughts and #floods. Nearly all (96%) of EWE-related disaster morbidity was caused by cold weather, floods and storms. Regression analysis revealed strong evidence (R-square = 0.88) that the annual incidence of EWE disasters is increasing worldwide. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) calculations identified an association between human exposure rates and hazard incidence (P value = 0.01) No significant trends were noted for rates of exposure, morbidity or mortality.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest with a high degree of certainty that the annual incidence of EWE disasters is increasing. There is also a moderate degree of evidence of an association between the incidence of EWE’s and human exposure rates (i.e., number of persons affected per 100.000 population).

Keim M. The epidemiology of extreme weather events. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2020 Apr. 35(3):1-5. #climatecrisis