Out of the frying pan … Americans are leaving hurricane hotspots, but end up in wildfire areas

Americans are abandoning parts of the country hardest hit by hurricanes and heatwaves — only to relocate towards dangerous wildfires, say a ten-year University of Vermont study of migration patterns.

Mahalia Clark, the report's lead author, called it 'troubling' that between 2010 and 2020 Americans relocated to areas prone to woodland and brush fires that would only become more frequent as the planet warms.

'These findings are concerning, because people are moving into harm's way — into regions with wildfires and rising temperatures, which are expected to become more extreme due to climate change,' said Clark.

This past decade, Americans have tended to migrate away from places in the Midwest, the Great Plains, and along the Mississippi River — all areas frequently beset by hurricanes or heatwaves, researchers said.

As well as escaping storms and muggy summer humidity, they were also waving goodbye to other problems, such as higher-than-average unemployment rates and wider disparities of wealth, they added.

People are migrating within the US, mostly from the Midwest, the Great Plains, and along the Mississippi River, to cities and suburbs in the Pacific Northwest, parts of the Southwest, Texas, Florida, and a swath of the Southeast, this chart shows

They've opted instead for cities and suburbs in the Pacific Northwest, parts of the Southwest — including Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah — Texas, Florida, and a swath of the Southeast from Nashville, to Atlanta and Washington DC.

They were likely drawn for many reasons, including warmer winters, proximity to water and forests, moderate population density and an overall higher standard of living, researchers said.

But their new homes also face significant wildfire risks and relatively warm temperatures.

Gillian Galford, co-author of the report, which was published in Frontiers in Human Dynamics, said people were likely weighing the pros and cons of where to live, but not properly factoring the downsides of wildfires.

'For many Americans, the risks and dangers of living in hurricane zones may be starting to outweigh the benefits of life in those areas,' said Galford.

'That same tipping point has yet to happen for wildfires and rising summer heat, which have emerged as national issues more recently.'

A separate study from Realtor.com last month found that homebuyers were increasingly weighing the risks of floods, wildfires and other extreme weather events when deciding whether to invest in a property.

Homes with a low risk of flooding rise in value at 1.5 percentage points faster than do flood-prone homes, researchers said. Likewise, homes at a low risk of wildfires appreciate at 3.7 percentage points faster than risky properties.

Still, the researchers described a massive problem, with more than $8.8 trillion in home property value at moderate-to-high risk of wildfire and $6.5 trillion more at moderate-to-high risk of flood damage over the next 30 years.

Some 64,127 wildfires have burned 7,343,939 acres of land this year — above the national average, the National Interagency Fire Center said this week that. Six ongoing uncontained large fires have burned 906 acres in Indiana and North Carolina.

The Atlantic hurricane season ended last month with 14 named storms, but residents of Florida and Puerto Rico are continuing to deal with damage caused by Hurricanes Nicole, Fiona and Ian, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

After striking the US mainland in September, Ian ravaged Florida and the Carolinas with catastrophic force, killing over 100 people and leaving behind a $60 billion trail of destruction.

A property burns as the Fairview Fire rages amid an intense heat wave in September in Riverside County, California. Some 64,127 wildfires have burned 7,343,939 acres of land this year — above the national average