Is anywhere safe from deadly weather? New map reveals the US states most at risk from climate crisis

A new climate change risk index reveals the best states for Americans to escape the impacts of extreme weather like the recent devastating Category 4 Hurricane Helene.

Using data from independent scientific group Climate Central, the new risk index ranks 48 US states (Alaska and Hawaii are excluded due to lack of comparative data) according to the impact the climate crisis is likely to have on the population.

Nine out of 10 states predicted to experience the worst impacts from the climate crisis are in the American South, many of them coastal. The northeast is seen as the safest zone, with Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts taking the top three spots - though nowhere escapes all climate change impacts. 

More than 200 people died during the recent 140-mile-an-hour-wind Hurricane Helene, many in Florida where the hurricane first hit land, but also across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia.

Experts have since said that Hurricane Helene signals the end of the ‘climate haven’ - a controversial premise that there are places on Earth that are safe from the impacts of the climate crisis.

One such ‘haven’ was Asheville, North Carolina - which was hit by the recent hurricane and suffered devastating floods. Even so, there are areas with higher and lower comparative risks - depending on the climate impact being looked at. 

The new climate change risk index looked at factors including dangerously hot days (days with a heat index of at least 105°F or 40.6°C), increased mosquito season days, wildfire potential and percentage of the population at risk, and coastal and inland flooding.

All 48 states included in the index were expected to see an increase in extreme heat - nowhere in the continental US is seen