Death Map: If the Cold Doesn't Get You, the Heat Will

"U.S. Death Map: Where and How Nature Kills Most"
LiveScience (December 16, 2008)

"A new map plotting deaths resulting from forces of nature reveals where Mother Nature is most likely to kill you.

"People living in the South along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts have a higher likelihood of dying from a natural hazard compared to residents of the Great Lakes area and urbanized Northeast.

"And while intense hurricanes and tornadoes steal...."


(From Borden and Cutter/BioMed Central Ltd., via FOXNews, used without permission)

I was surprised to see that much of northern Minnesota had an average or below-average death rate from natural causes.

My guess is that not many people willingly move to northern Minnesota, and the ones born there are descended from those who had what it takes to survive fuel-freezing cold, tar-melting heat, droughts, floods, blizzards, mosquitoes, and marshes that look like meadows.

Across America, almost six out of ten natural-disaster deaths happen because of heat/drought, severe summer weather, or winter weather. And northern Minnesota has all three, if you wait long enough. The fishing and hunting is pretty good, though.

More, at

• "Spatial patterns of natural hazards mortality in the United States"
  Abstract (provisional)
  
  Related post:
  • "Minnesota isn't a Cool State: It's Downright Cold"
    (December 17, 2008)
  
  International Journal of Health Geographics (December 17, 2008)