pathway on Yale campus amongst bushes, fall trees, and a bike path

XToll: eXtreme-weather Toll Tracker

XToll: Extreme-Weather Toll Tracker

Interactive Tool

XToll (the eXtreme-weather Toll Tracker) is an interactive map that reveals the human and economic toll of extreme weather across the contiguous United States, county by county. Drawing on the Center’s peer-reviewed research, it estimates deaths and economic losses from four major climate-driven hazards: wildfire smoke, extreme heat, drought, and flooding.

Open the dashboard
XToll tracker (new dashboard)

What does XToll track?

  • Smoke

    Mortality from long-term exposure to wildfire smoke PM2.5

  • Heat

    Deaths attributable to extreme heat temperatures

  • Drought

    Mortality attributable to drought events

  • Flood

    Cause-specific mortality associated with flooding events

XToll tracker (new dashboard)

How does it work?

1. EXPLORE THE MAP

Counties are shaded by their extreme weather mortality burden, from lowest to highest percentile.

2. CLICK A COUNTY

View that county’s profile: dollars lost to extreme weather-related mortality and its national ranking.

3. COMPARE HAZARDS

See how wildfire smoke, heat, drought, and flood each contribute to the local toll.

What does the data show?

National Trends

Estimated U.S. economic loss from extreme weather-related mortality, 2000–2020.

xtoll_trends
  • Wildfire smoke is the largest driver, peaking around 2012 and staying high in recent years.
  • Heat-related loss is rising fastest — up roughly 178% from 2000 to 2020.
  • Drought loss is substantial but declining, tracking closely with wildfire smoke.
  • Flood loss is trending upward, reaching a peak around 2019.

Regional Patterns

The geography of risk differs by hazard. Explore each layer directly in the XToll dashboard.

WF_XTOLL_NEW
Wildfire Smoke

Highest across the Upper Midwest, Great Plains, and Great Lakes — smoke travels far beyond where fires start.

Drought XToll map
Drought

Heaviest across the Southeast and along the West Coast.

Heat XToll map
Heat

Concentrated in the West (California, Southwest) and the Northeast corridor.

Flood XToll map
Flood

Clustered in the mountainous West and northern Great Plains.

Data sources: Built on peer-reviewed research published in PNAS (wildfire smoke, Ma et al. 2024), JAMA Network Open (heat & cold, Chu et al. 2025), and Nature Communications (flood, Chu et al. 2025), plus a drought study by Hu et al. (2025). Developed by Kai Chen, Lingzhi Chu, Ying Hu, and Mitchell Manware.

Explore your county

See the extreme weather toll where you live, and how it ranks nationally, in the full interactive dashboard.

Open the dashboard