Yes! With the exception of Arkansas and Oklahoma, which may be considered part of that region, but are facing several compounding risks. The biggest threats facing the Midwest are wind, hail, and storms, but I’ll take that over wildfires, hurricanes, floods, or lethal wet bulb events.

Here are some links/resource for homebuying in regards to climate risk:

• American Resiliency | YouTube channel covering climate migration and adaptation.
• The Reliance School | Hey that’s me! Collection of climate risk maps, plus articles on finding a home.
• Climate Change and Your Home | Substack on climate-resilient real estate.
• First Street | Address lookup tool with risk ratings for floods, fires, heat, hurricanes, and air pollution.
• ClimateCheck | Address lookup tool, similar to First Street, also includes storm & drought ratings.
• How to Shop for a Home That Won’t Be Upended by Climate Change | NYT article with a good checklist.
• America’s Most Sustainable Cities and Regions | Book projecting climate and economic trends.
• ND-Gain Urban Adaptation Assessment | List of cities ranked by climate resilience.
• What will climate feel like in 60 years? | Map of climate analogs for major cities.

And according to their docs, flood risk coming soon as well. I would love to see projected drought at some point too! Heat and hurricanes are the other main climate-fueled threats, but they’re pretty easy to predict (stay out of the South, stay away from coasts).

I like that this project is opening up granular data to the public. First Street is great for simple searches (and their subscriptions are reasonably priced as well), but if you want direct access to their data it’s $10K-$15K/year and up.

It was a no-brainer until fossil fuels! (Although traditionally settlements would have a village surrounded by farmland, not the inverse.)

The ethics and impact of migration is a real concern. If we just take overextraction and overconsumption and move it somewhere else, we’re not solving anything. (For example, if we take a region that has a lot of freshwater/biodiversity/arable land and just pave it over.)

I want to start having more discussions about this as migration goes mainstream but there’s no feasible way to legislate or enforce it which really worries me.

If you look at what Republican leadership is doing (not saying), they absolutely believe climate change is a threat. They’re reacting to it with dystopian measures, but it’s clear they’re just playing dumb.

I was listening to this podcast yesterday, and they made the point that for folks living in the most vulnerable/exposed areas, renting may be the move as you’re not on the hook for uninsurable losses. But obviously the risk is to more than just wealth, as I wouldn’t want to have to evacuate or face down a life-threatening disaster.