Americans turn to the Internet to beat extreme weather at home

Recent extreme weather has prompted homeowners to fortify their homes and battle against heat, cold, ice, floods, tornadoes and hurricanes more than ever before.

One company looked at how Americans are fighting and found that the battle starts online. Climate scientists warn that weather will become even more extreme with climate change, making protection from wildfires, wind, hail and heat waves even more urgent.

Yelp, the company that publishes crowdsourced reviews of businesses, tracked trends by ranking their queries from May 2023 to April 2024. Analysts compared the number of times per million searches that users enter keywords compared to May 2019 to April 2020 .

“By examining Yelp data on consumer searches for flood, fire protection, home insurance, air conditioning repairs and more, these findings reveal gradual changes in searches for weather-related service professionals in recent years and how users are responding to extreme events and unprecedented weather,” Yelp said in a statement.

Across the US, Yelp found an 80% increase in “air conditioning repair” and “pool installation” inquiries to beat the heat. “Storm preparation” questions doubled, “home insurance” questions tripled while “storm door installation” quadrupled. Nationally, “flood cleanup” increased by 505%.

The results from individual cities were even more fascinating. Providence, Rhode Island inquiries rose 3,726% after New England’s historic floods. New York flood claims increased by 853%.

BEFORE AND AFTER PHOTOS ACROSS VERMONT SHOW THE SCOPE OF FLOOD DAMAGE

After a series of deadly storm surges and Hurricane Hilary, flooding inquiries in Los Angeles increased by 235%.

“Whether it’s extreme heat or unexpected storms, recent weather conditions have shown the importance of keeping your home ready for anything,” said Yelp Trends Expert Tara Lewis. “Our latest report highlights the ways people react to extreme weather and how you can maintain peace of mind from season to season.”

SAN DIEGO FLOODWATERS MAKE DRAMATIC RESCUE AS REGION SEES RECORD RAIN

Even Alaska could not escape the heat wave in 2023, which was officially the hottest year on record in the world. Anchor searches for “air conditioner installations” increased by 633%.

Texas had the opposite problem during the extended arctic winter blast. San Antonio searches for “winter” increased by 550% and Dallas by 229%.

WATCH: THIS WEEK’S WETTY WEATHER IS NOT KEEPING PEOPLE FROM GOING OUT

After back-to-back years of the US being hit by hurricanes, states and not just Florida; Searches for “storm window” increased by 50%, “storm windows” by 89%, “waterproofing” by 52% and “tank pumps” by 146%.

SECOND US DEATH REPORTED AS LEE OFF NEW ENGLAND ISLANDS IN HIGH WINDS, DANGEROUS WAVES

So far, 2024 has already seen 11 natural disasters costing at least $1 billion, and the year isn’t even half over. Last year a record $28 billion disaster hit America. Over the past five years, multibillion-dollar weather disasters and climate extremes cost Americans a total of $616.1 billion. 102 disasters claimed 1996 lives.

CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS COSTING 4150 BILLION A YEAR AND COUNTING, SAYS GOVERNMENT REPORT

Comparing this with the previous decade shows a huge increase. The United States saw $131 billion in disasters, costing a total of $987.9 and killing 5,227 Americans in the 2010s. In the last five years alone, we saw 78% of the number of disasters during those years. A 2023 repeat would put us on pace to double the number of billion-dollar disasters in a decade.

Original article source: Americans turn to the Internet to beat extreme weather at home