Findings on Climatology Reported by Investigators at Florida State University (Structural Property Losses from Tornadoes in Florida)

Science Letter

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Science Letter -- Data detailed on Science - Climatology have been presented. According to news reporting out of Tallahassee, Florida, by NewsRx editors, research stated, "Property losses from tornadoes in Florida are estimated by combining a 1-km spatial grid of structural values from the Department of Revenue's 2014 cadastral database with historical tornado events since 1950. There are 91 180 grid cells in the state with at least some structural value."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Florida State University, "Total and residential structural values total $942 billion and $619 billion, respectively. Over the period 1950 through 2015 there were 3233 individual tornado reports in the state with a peak frequency during June. The property value exposed to tornadoes is estimated using a geometric model for the path. Annual statewide total and residential structural property exposure to tornadoes is estimated at $171 million and $103 million, respectively. Property exposure to tornadoes peaks in February. A regression model quantifies the relationship between actual losses since 2007 and exposures. A doubling of the residential exposure increases actual recorded losses by 26% since 2007, and a doubling of nonresidential exposure increases losses by 21%, controlling for changes over time. Randomization of the historical tornado paths provides alternative exposure scenarios that are used to determine the probability of extreme loss years. Results from the Monte Carlo algorithm indicate a 1% chance that the annual loss will exceed $430 million and a 0.1% chance that it will exceed $1 billion."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "These findings, and the procedure to obtain them, should help property insurance and reinsurance companies gauge their risk of losses and prioritize their management actions."

For more information on this research see: Structural Property Losses from Tornadoes in Florida. Weather Climate and Society, 2018;10(2):253-258. Weather Climate and Society can be contacted at: Amer Meteorological Soc, 45 Beacon St, Boston, MA 02108-3693, USA (see also Science - Climatology).

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting J.B. Elsner, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, United States. Additional authors for this research include E. Ryan and G. Strode.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-17-0055.1. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Keywords for this news article include: Tallahassee, Florida, United States, North and Central America, Climatology, Science, Florida State University.