Weather fatalities for all age groups were examined for the period 1996–2018 using NOAA Storm Data. Vulnerabilities due to limited mobility that inhibited evacuation from a hazardous environment were observed for the very young and the very old. Those situations included heat- and cold-related hazards, tropical cyclones, and wildfires. Vulnerabilities associated with unrestricted mobility occurred in teenage through middle-aged groups, who were more exposed to fatal outcomes in the surfzone, mountain, winter-driving, and lightning environments. There is evidence that vulnerable members of society who received help from family, neighbors, and their community were more likely to avoid potentially fatal weather events, whereas those who were socially isolated were more likely to succumb. National Weather Service programs, such as Weather-Ready Nation, and other initiatives like the Community Emergency Response Team could potentially aid in reducing weather fatalities by encouraging communities to take a more proactive approach in ensuring physically vulnerable populations like the elderly receive assistance during hazardous weather events. Furthermore, weather-messaging strategies should be flexible enough to target populations who are vulnerable to specific hazards.

A dataset maintained by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) of 6300 tornado events from 2009–2015, consisting of radar-identified convective modes and near-storm environmental information obtained from Rapid Update Cycle and Rapid Refresh model analysis grids, has been augmented with additional radar information related to the low-level mesocyclones associated with tornado longevity, path-length, and width. All EF2–EF5 tornadoes, in addition to randomly selected EF0–EF1 tornadoes, were extracted from the SPC dataset, which yielded 1268 events for inclusion in the current study. Analysis of that data revealed similar values of the effective-layer significant tornado parameter for the longest-lived (60+ min) tornadic circulations, longest-tracked (≥ 68 km) tornadoes, and widest tornadoes (≥ 1.2 km). However, the widest tornadoes occurring west of –94° longitude were associated with larger mean-layer convective available potential energy, storm-top divergence, and low-level rotational velocity. Furthermore, wide tornadoes occurred when low-level winds were out of the southeast resulting in large low-level hodograph curvature and near-surface horizontal vorticity that was more purely streamwise compared to long-lived and long-tracked events. On the other hand, tornado path-length and longevity were maximized with eastward migrating synoptic-scale cyclones associated with strong southwesterly wind profiles through much of the troposphere, fast storm motions, large values of bulk wind difference and storm-relative helicity, and lower buoyancy.