What is the most dangerous season for weather-related deaths in the U.S.?
In the winter we have icy roads and countless fatal traffic accidents. People fall through the ice and drown. People don’t pay their heating bills and freeze to death.
In the spring the snow & ice melt and we have floods.
In the summer we have lightning, tornadoes, and more floods. People get heat stroke and die.
And in the fall we have hurricanes.
So what’s the worst season for weather-related deaths?
Wow, government tax dollars at work. The National Weather Service actually keeps these stats: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/hazstats.htm (in PDFs :()
Here are the 1999 figures…
Freeze to death: 7
Winter storm: 39
Ice: 2
Avalanche: 26
Auto accidents: ???
Winter total: ???
Floods: 68
Thunderstorm: 29
Spring total: 97
Lightning: 46
Tornadoes: 94
Heat: 502!!
Summer total: 642
Hurricane: 19
Fall total: 19
So in 1999, it was obviously the summer, IF you don’t count auto accidents as weather-related, which is what the NWS does. If someone can find some data on the number of fatal winter auto accidents in 1999, that would make this a slightly more rigorous conclusion. 
These number should also be average over 10 years or so, but that’s not worth the effort.
I’m a little curious, but has the NWS decided that there are no other weather related deaths? How about aircraft crashes, or auto accidents that do not occur in winter? There have to be more weather related deaths than that.
How direct are we talking here? Poor winter road conditions probably lead to quite a few fatal accidents. They also delay ambulances from reaching people in need of immediate medical care, causing said persons to die when they normally might have lived. What about all of those people that keel over of heart attacks while shovelling snow (or is that a UL?)?
Of course, violent crime goes up in the summer (tempers flare, people are outside and make convenient robbery victims, etc.).
I guess this could go on forever, until every death is weather related.
I would think that the most dangerous time for weather-related deaths would vary by region. For example, the South typically doesn’t have bad weather in the winter (although this year is an obvious exception), but it really gets hit during hurricane season. The most weather-related deaths I have ever read about (in that region) occurred immediately after hurricanes, when people (Darwin award nominees?) attempted to drive through floodwaters only to have their vehicles swept away.
I have an entirely different take on this, for some reason…
I’d hazard a WAG and say that clear, warm, bright, sunny weather causes the most vehicular crashes. When the weather is nasty and the roads are crap people tend to slow down and be more careful. Not so in the good old summertime when people are whizzing along at speed.
My $.02, anyway.