With the hurricane season officially over on 30 November, those living in affected parts of the US might be tempted to breathe a sigh of relief. The bad news, however, is that people are increasingly making their home in areas vulnerable to winter storms.
So says climatologist Stanley Changnon, former chief of the Illinois State Water Survey, who analysed the sums paid out by insurance companies between 1949 and 2003 for damage caused by blizzards, snowstorms and ice storms. He considered only the events that cost more than $5 million in claims, and adjusted all figures for inflation.
The average…
