THE WEATHER CHANNEL — Where's the best place to live to avoid natural disasters?
Head west, according to a new list from real estate data analysis firm CoreLogic.
A handful of counties in New Mexico, Utah and Colorado top the firm's list of "safest places to live" in terms of natural disasters.
The analysis looked at the current risk of wildfires, inland flooding, severe thunderstorms, winter storms, earthquakes and hurricanes for 154 million properties across the United States.
It doesn't take into account some more specific climate-related risks, such as stress on water systems due to drought or the kind of extreme heat waves that are becoming more common in parts of the West.
The top 10 counties considered by the analysis to currently be the safest from the six disaster risk factors are:
10. San Miguel County, Colorado
9. Mesa County, Colorado
8. Uintah County, Utah
7. Saguache County, Colorado
6. Pondera County, Montana
5. Summit County, Colorado
4. Emery County, Utah
3. Conejos County, Colorado
2. Duchesne County, Utah
1. McKinley County, New Mexico
A second list compiled by the firm looks ahead 30 years and assumes progressively worse impacts from climate change. In that scenario, the list changes a bit. McKinley County, New Mexico, remains at the top but the rest shifts to, in order: Conejos County, Colorado; Summit County, Colorado; Duchesne County, Utah; Saguache County, Colorado; Spokane County, Washington; Emery County, Utah; Eagle County, Colorado; San Juan County, Colorado; and Chaffee County, Colorado.
The CoreLogic list is just one of many similar "best places to live" compilations, and the factors considered vary widely.
In 2021, U.S. News and World Report analyzed resiliency data from the Environmental Protection Agency and found that the top five most climate-resilient cities in the U.S. were Anchorage, Alaska; Honolulu; Spokane, Washington; Eugene, Oregon; and Santa Barbara, California.
Conversely, when it comes to climate change risk, a report released in February by Moody's Analytics listed San Francisco, New York City and Phoenix as some of the most vulnerable major cities in the U.S.
