No where to run to; nowhere to hide?

A recent conversation:

Friend: Are you looking forward to being retired and moving out of the cold country?


Me: I’ve got lots of things I’m looking forward to doing when I have the time, but we aren’t planning to move.


Friend: What!? Why would you want to put up with Wisconsin winters when you could live almost anywhere?


Me: We actually like the winters. And, most of the usual retirement areas are ungodly hot in the summer.


Friend: And, the tornados! Wouldn’t you want to get out of the tornado belt?


Me: There are risks everywhere.


Friend: Meh.

Later that day, I did a little poking around and found an article from the August 5, 2005 issue of Forbes magazine that listed the safest and least safe cities in the U. S. in terms of extreme weather (based on data from Sperling’s Best Places).

Least safe:


1. Monroe, LA
2. Dallas, TX
3. Jackson, MS
4. Lakeland - Winter Haven, FL
5. West Palm Beach – Boca Raton, FL
6. Kansas City, MO
7. Elkhart – Goshen, IN
8. Tulsa, OK
9. Memphis, TN
10. Shreveport – Bossier City, LA

I particularly like the fact that a city named for being a haven from winter has riskier weather than any snow-belt city in the country, even though one of the risk factors measured in the study was the frequency of below-freezing temperatures.

Safest:


1. Honolulu, HI
2. Boise City, ID
3. Santa Fe, NM
4. Yakima, WA
5. Spokane, WA
6. Richland – Kennewick – Pasco, WA
7. Medford – Ashland, OR
8. Corvallis, OR
9. Salem, OR
10. Las Cruces, NM

Why all the WAs and ORs (and the ID?)? The study ignored volcanic eruptions. It also ignored tsunamis (although Hawaii hasn’t had a bad one for decades).

That leaves a couple of higher elevation cities in New Mexico.

We might take a look. Any other suggestions?