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Just How Dangerous is the Weather?
By dtewes in Sky Watch
December 15, 2008

Image    Well, a recent piece in the Weather Club E-news newsletter from Davis Instruments answers that question this way:
   We all worry about being struck dead by lightning or freezing to death while out shoveling the driveway. We worry about dying in a flood, or our house being swept off to Oz in a tornado. But really, how dangerous is the weather?
   If we want a dose of reality to appease (or intensify, as the case may be) our concerns, the National Safety Council has figured out the odds of you dying in just about every non-natural way. This list is quite comprehensive!
   According to their data, your odds of dying (over your lifetime) in a cataclysmic storm are 1 in 59,836. That might sound bad, but you are more than ten times more likely to die in an airplane accident (1 in 5,552).
   It seems your odds of being killed by lightning are one in 81,949. You are more likely to die as a result of falling, jumping or being pushed from a high place (1 in 53,094).
   The odds you’ll die in an earthquake are one in 125,655, about the same as your odds of dying as a result of being bitten or struck by a dog (one in 139,617).
   Freezing to death? At one in 5,576, it could happen. In fact, the odds of your dying as a result of any force of nature are one in 3,421.
   But contrast that to your odds of dying due to risks we all take every day, just by going about our lives, like complications of medical or surgical care (1/1,308), assault by a firearm (1/324), falling (1/200), or, the big danger: motor vehicle accident: one in 84.
   Your safest way to live dangerously? Ride a streetcar. Odds of dying: one in 3,769,664

Comments


  • dtewes dtewes Report a ViolationReport a Violation
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    You miss me, Dejasmom. I always knew you have a soft heart.

    December 15, 2008 at 4:46 p.m.

  • Dejasmom Dejasmom Report a ViolationReport a Violation
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    Tewes, you're killing me!! :) Though it is nice to know that you haven't changed. I sorta miss the plane crash emails I used to get....in a weird way, they comforted me.

    December 15, 2008 at 4:30 p.m.