Editing Geography of the United States (section)

===Tornadoes and hurricanes===
{{main|Tornadoes in the United States|Hurricanes in the United States}}
[[File:Hurricane katrina damage gulfport mississippi.jpg|thumb|Total devastation in [[Gulfport, Mississippi]] caused by storm surge from [[Hurricane Katrina]] in 2005]]
According to a 2023 Gallup survey, around one in three Americans said that they directly experienced a severe weather condition over the previous two years.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Horn-Muller |first=Ayurella |date=2023-04-15 |title=Climate-displaced Americans face discrimination |url=https://www.axios.com/2023/04/14/climate-displaced-americans-discrimination |access-date=2023-04-19 |website=Axios |language=en}}</ref> The Great Plains and Midwest, due to the contrasting air masses, see frequent severe thunderstorms and tornado outbreaks during spring and summer with around 1,000 tornadoes occurring each year.<ref>[http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/primer/tornado/tor_climatology.html NSSL: Severe Weather 101] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320044359/http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/primer/tornado/tor_climatology.html |date=2012-03-20 }}. Nssl.noaa.gov. Retrieved on 2013-07-29.</ref> The strip of land from north [[Texas]] north to [[Kansas]] and [[Nebraska]] and east into [[Tennessee]] is known as [[Tornado Alley]], where many houses have tornado shelters and many towns have tornado sirens, due to the very frequent tornado formation in the region.

Hurricanes are another natural disaster found in the US, which can hit anywhere along the [[U.S. Gulf Coast|Gulf Coast]] or the [[East Coast of the United States|Atlantic Coast]] as well as Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Particularly at risk are the central and southern [[Texas]] coasts, the area from southeastern [[Louisiana]] east to the [[Florida Panhandle]], peninsular [[Florida]], and the [[Outer Banks]] of [[North Carolina]], although any portion of the coast could be struck. The [[U.S. territories]] and possessions in the [[Caribbean]], including [[Puerto Rico]] and the [[U.S. Virgin Islands]], are also vulnerable to hurricanes due to their location in the [[Caribbean Sea]].

Hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, with a peak from mid-August through early October. Some of the more devastating hurricanes have included the [[Galveston Hurricane of 1900]], [[Hurricane Andrew]] in 1992, [[Hurricane Katrina]] in 2005, and [[Hurricane Harvey]] and [[Hurricane Maria]] in 2017.

Hurricanes (known as cyclones in the Pacific Ocean) fail to make landfall on the Pacific Coast of the United States due to water temperatures being too cool to sustain them. However, the remnants of tropical cyclones from the Eastern Pacific occasionally impact the western United States, bringing moderate to heavy rainfall.