Editorial policy
PlainHazard prints only what the federal storm and disaster files support, says which file each figure comes from, and corrects what it gets wrong in the open. PlainHazard Editorial answers for these standards; the about page names the owner.
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Sources
Figures come from primary federal files only: NOAA's Storm Events Database and Storm Prediction Center tornado database, and FEMA's OpenFEMA declarations, flood insurance claims and National Risk Index. Definitions are quoted from the agency that sets them, such as the National Weather Service's Storm Data instruction or the Code of Federal Regulations, and credited where they appear. No figure is estimated or taken from a secondary website: counts, ranks and amounts are queries over the federal files, and the few tables quoted from an agency page (SPC's named tornado lists, its damage-indicator table) are copied with their source and date.
Analyses and guides
Each analysis leads with what it found, then shows the evidence, then states how it was measured, the sources and the limits. A claim the data cannot support is left out rather than hedged; where the record cannot separate causes, such as a change in reporting from a change in the weather, the page says so. Rankings compare like with like: per square mile or per person, over the years each hazard was fully recorded.
Use of AI
PlainHazard uses AI tools to write the site's code, its templates and the wording of its guides and analyses. AI tools do not generate figures: every figure is a query over the federal files, or is quoted from the agency's own pages (saved copies, credited, such as SPC's lists of F5/EF5 and the deadliest tornadoes). The methodology lists the automated checks the data passes before it is published.
Independence
The site is paid for by display advertising. Advertisers do not see pages before publication and have no influence on them; no one can pay to change a ranking or a record. PlainHazard is not affiliated with any agency whose data it uses.
Corrections
Send a suspected error to hello@plainhazard.com. We compare the page with the federal file. If our join, conversion or wording is wrong, we fix it and record the fix on the corrections page. If the federal file itself is wrong, we tell you which agency to report it to, and the page follows when the agency publishes a corrected file.