Despite the fact that there have been thousands of wildfires in California in 2018, including one considered the deadliest in the state’s history, and just 10 hurricanes in North America, there have been nearly three times as many media stories about hurricanes this year, according to a report in Recode.
Citing data from Parse.ly, a company that provides analysis on more than 3,000 U.S. publications’ websites, there have been 30,000 articles written about hurricanes and 10,605 about wildfires since March 31, Recode reports.
The data reported in Recode found that the disparity exists even on an individual incident level and that may be due to the fact that hurricanes tend to impact a bigger geographic size, though human tolls are comparable.
In the week that Hurricane Florence made landfall, there were about 9,000 articles written about the storm, which spanned 15,000 square miles and killed 53 people. Comparatively, during the week when the Camp Fire was fully engulfing 263 square miles, leaving 84 people dead, there were only 2,000 articles written, Recode reports.
The Camp Fire, which destroyed Paradise, Calif. and left 1,000 people missing, is only 65 percent contained. Rain is predicted for the area this week, which is expected to clear the polluted air but will likely make rescue efforts more difficult.
