Marine Dense Fog in the United States

How dangerous are Marine Dense Fog events in the U.S.?

The loss ranking is the stronger warning against reading frequency alone. Marine Dense Fog is #52 of 54 by event count but rises to #44 for combined property and crop damage. Its losses make up <0.1% of the catalog total, while its fatalities rank #32 and represent 0.1% of recorded deaths. Fewer events can still produce an outsized financial record.

Year-over-year trends reveal the event's volatility. The peak year on record was 2016, logging 4 events and $0 in property damage in a single calendar year. The most recent year in the dataset is 2025 with 3 events recorded. Across the full 7-year window, annual event counts reflect ordinary seasonal variability more than any clear multi-year trend.

NOAA records too few marine dense fog events (20 events) to express a stable per-event fatality rate; a single incident would swing it by a wide margin. The cumulative record stands at 13 fatalities and 4 injuries, and recorded damage averages $3.3K per event. Read those as counts, not as a rate.

The geographic footprint is uneven across the country. The three states and marine areas absorbing the largest share of events are GULF OF MEXICO (7 events, 3 fatalities), ATLANTIC NORTH (4 events, 0 fatalities), E PACIFIC (4 events, 10 fatalities), largely a function of local terrain and settlement patterns rather than any single cause. At the other end, states and marine areas such as E PACIFIC, ATLANTIC SOUTH, LAKE ERIE report far fewer events, a sign of lower exposure, though absence of a recorded event is not proof of zero risk.

Recorded events are numerous relative to a more limited fatality total in this part of the catalog. NOAA reports 20 events, 13 fatalities, and 4 injuries from 2015 through 2025. PlainHazard calls 5-19 cumulative fatalities a moderate human-toll band. The label organizes this dataset and should not be read as an agency safety classification.

NOAA entries are reports filed by local National Weather Service offices. Counts therefore reflect both observed weather and reporting practice; they do not measure unreported events, household exposure, or the probability of a future event at one address.