Many people are deathly afraid of severe weather. Are the chances of getting killed by severe storms as high as what most people believe? According to the bookofodds.com, the chances of being killed by a tornado are:
1 in 4, 513,000
For comparison, the chances of dying from a fall off a cliff is:
1 in 4,101,000
The bookofodds.com correctly points out these facts about the deadliest tornado on record:
"The tornado with the highest death count was the 1925 Tri-State Tornado, which ravaged a path a mile wide and 219 miles across through Missouri, Illinois,and Indiana. The speed was 60 miles per hour—twice the forward speed of the average tornado. Although the Tri-State Tornado lacked the classic funnel cloud, and was therefore virtually invisible, the damage was catastrophic: nearly 2,000 people were injured, property losses totaled more than $16 million, and 689 people died."
The Deadliest Weather of the Decade; Top ten states/chances of getting killed by weather. (1999 to 2008). A word of caution: A distaster like Hurricane Katrina will significantly skew these chances higher for the state effected.
1. Louisiana 1 in 49,330
2 Mississippi 1 in 112,700
3 Alaska 1 in 116,900
4 Wyoming 1 in 173,800
5 Missouri 1 in 182,900
6 Oklahoma 1 in 240,500
7 Arkansas 1 in 287,800
8 Kansas 1 in 290,300
9 Illinois 1 in 303,900
10 Utah 1 in 337,700
The odds of getting by lightning: 1 in 835,500
The odds of getting killed by hail: 1 in 734,400,000
The odds of a meteor landing on your house: 1 in 182,138,880,000,000
A few odds and ends comparing severe weather odds to other odds.
A 10-character password yields 59,873,693,923,837,890,625 combinations.
80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000 The number of way to order a 52 card deck
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