The ultimate goal of weather forecasting is to help people stay safe. Forecast accuracy and advanced warnings have improved by leaps and bounds in recent decades. As a result, overall weather casualties have largely decreased over the years.

Excessive heat and flash flooding remain the two leading weather-related causes of death in the United States as of the 2020s.

With exceptions for extreme events, fatalities related to tornadoes, hurricanes, and especially lightning have precipitously decreased since the middle of the 1900s.

Today's tornado forecasts would be unrecognizable back in the 1950s when radar technology was in its infancy.

Tornado fatalities noticeably dropped off across the United States after the first widespread radar network came into use in 1959. This advance allowed forecasters to identify storms and storm structures capable of producing tornadoes.

Meteorologists got a major boost when Doppler radar arrived in the early 1990s, enabling the detection of rotating winds within a storm. Dual-polarization added to radars in the 2010s provided for debris detection, which makes it possible to confirm the existence of a damaging tornado solely using radar.

The United States averaged about 48 tornado fatalities in the ten years between 2014 and 2023. Most modern-day tornado deaths occur in mobile homes and vehicles, neither of which offer sufficient protection from even a relatively weak twister.

Exceptionally violent tornadoes and tornado outbreaks are still capable of claiming a horrific toll. Numerous outbreaks in 2011, combined with the storm that devastated Joplin, Missouri, led to more than 500 deaths—making it the deadliest year for tornadoes in living memory.

Flash flooding remains the leading storm-related cause of death across the United States, claiming about 100 lives each year between 2014 and 2023.

Despite advanced forecasts and detection, flooding deaths across the United States have remained relatively consistent since records began back in 1940.

Unlike tornadoes, which can lead to tragedy even in the face of praiseworthy preparedness, many flash flooding deaths are the direct result of human behavior. Most flooding deaths occur in vehicles.

Please remember: never try to drive across a flooded roadway. It's impossible to tell how deep the water is until it's too late. It's not worth the risk to your life or the lives of your potential rescuers.

The National Weather Service tracks 'direct' fatalities caused by tropical cyclones in the United States. A direct fatality is usually considered a casualty caused by winds, storm surge, rip currents, or a storm's freshwater flooding.

We've seen a small but perceptible decrease in tropical cyclone fatalities over the decades since reliable recordkeeping began in 1940.

Large spikes in the statistics reflect devastating landfalls, including Hurricane Katrina's 1,000+ death toll in 2005, as well as Hurricane Helene's devastating inland flooding in 2024.

We've seen a remarkable decline in lightning fatalities since records began in the 1940s, during which time the U.S. saw an average of 325 deaths per year.

A precipitous decade-over-decade decline followed, and the 2010s saw an average of 25 lightning fatalities per year across the country.

Improved forecasts, warnings, and radar technology likely played a key role in this dramatic reduction in lightning casualties. Fundamental changes to American society also took place during this time, with folks spending more time indoors than outdoors as jobs and recreation have both evolved.