People who live in cities by the coast naturally worry about flooding and rising seawater as climate change warms waters. But as the recent Asheville flooding shows us, even cities far from the coast can experience disasters thanks to climate change. A Cushman & Wakefield report highlights eight kinds of hazard exposures in 100 global cities and how that is forecast to change for the worse in the future. There are 30 U.S. cities on the list.
The hazard types are wind, flood, precipitation, hail, heat, cold, wildfire and drought. The worldwide cities are placed into four groups: those with low exposure that will improve over time (no cities are in that group), with low exposure that will worsen over time (roughly half), with high exposure that will improve (no cities) and high exposure that will worsen (again, roughly half).
The U.S. cities that are currently at low exposure overall that will worsen are, in alphabetical order:
Birmingham
Charlotte
Cincinnati
Detroit
Los Angeles
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Portland
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
St. Louis
The U.S. cities that are currently at high exposure overall that will worsen are, in alphabetical order:
- Atlanta
- Austin
- Boston
- Chicago
- Dallas
- Denver
- Houston
- Jacksonville
- Kansas City
- Miami
- New York
- Orlando
- Phoenix
- San Antonio
- San Jose
- Tampa
- Las Vegas
- Washington, D.C.
For each subcategory of hazard, here are the most at-risk U.S. cities:
Wind: Miami
Flood: Miami
Precipitation: Houston and Miami
Hail: Dallas
Heat: Phoenix
Cold: Denver
Wildfire: Phoenix
Drought: Chicago and Denver
But perhaps the most important list is one that ranks the U.S. cities overall in order of risk:
1. Miami
2. Orlando
3. Houston
4. Jacksonville
5. Tampa
6. Austin
7. San Antonio
8. Dallas
9. Boston
10. Phoenix
11. Chicago
12. New York
13. Washington, D.C.
14. Las Vegas
15. Kansas City
16. Denver
17. Atlanta
18. Philadelphia
19. Los Angeles
20. Charlotte
21. Indianapolis
22. Nashville
23. Cincinnati
24. St. Louis
25. Pittsburgh
26. Portland
27. San Francisco
28. Detroit
29. Seattle
30. San Diego