A winter storm is a combination of heavy snow, blowing snow, and/or dangerous wind chills and can be life-threatening. In North America, winter storms typically form when an air mass of cold, dry Canadian air moves south and interacts with a warm, moist air mass moving north from the Gulf of Mexico.

See how to determine your risk, prepare your family, learn about your building code, and identify ways to strengthen your home against winter storms.

Each year, thousands of acres of wildland and many homes are destroyed by fires that can erupt at any time of the year. Wildfires spread quickly, igniting brush, trees, and homes.

See how to determine your risk, prepare your family, learn about your building code, and identify ways to strengthen your home against wildfires.

A tsunami is a massive volume of moving seawater. The most frequent cause of a tsunami is the buckling of the seafloor caused by an underwater earthquake. According to NOAA, since the beginning of the 19th century, tsunamis have caused more than 700 deaths and approximately $2 billion in damage to U.S. coastal states and territories.

See how to determine your risk, prepare your family, learn about your building code, and identify ways to strengthen your home against tsunamis.

Tornadoes aren’t like hurricanes that are born over open waters and can take days to reach land. They are the most sudden, unpredictable, and violent storms on earth.

See how to determine your risk, prepare your family, learn about your building code, and identify ways to strengthen your home against tornadoes.

Lightning is the most dangerous and frequently encountered weather hazard that most people experience each year. Lightning is caused by a discharge of atmospheric electricity from one cloud to another or from a cloud to the earth. Lightning can travel 90,000 miles per second and a lightning bolt can generate heat in excess of 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit—a temperature five times hotter than the surface of the sun.

See how to determine your risk, prepare your family, learn about your building code, and identify ways to strengthen your home against lightning.

Hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30 every year. Hurricanes can bring severe winds, heavy rainfall, storm surge, coastal and inland flooding, rip currents, tornadoes, and even landslides.

See how to prepare your family, learn about your building code, find your evacuation zone, decide where you’ll shelter, and strengthen your home.

Hail can cause costly damage to your home, especially the roof, siding, and windows.

Learn to identify your risk, understand your options, and protect your home against hail. 

Devastating floods occur throughout the U.S. every year. Ninety percent of all presidentially declared natural disasters involve flooding.

There are different types of flooding: river, coastal, storm surge, and inland. All can cause death, injury, and property destruction.

See how to determine your risk, prepare your family, learn about your building code, and identify ways to strengthen your home against flooding.

Generally, extreme heat is defined as temperatures that hover 10 degrees or more above the average high temperature for the region that last for prolonged periods of time and are accompanied by high humidity that the body cannot tolerate.

See how to determine your risk, prepare your family, learn about your building code, and identify ways to strengthen your home against extreme heat.

An earthquake can last for seconds or minutes with multiple aftershocks. Earthquakes can cause buildings and bridges to collapse — and trigger avalanches, flash floods, fires, landslides, or tsunamis.

See how to determine your risk, prepare your family, learn about your building code, and identify ways to strengthen your home against earthquakes.