After the Winds Settle: Examining the Effects of Tornado Events on Educational Outcomes

As a frequently occurring natural hazard in the United States, tornadoes pose significant threats to communities and their livelihoods. Due to their destructive capacity, these events can result in the loss of homes and damage to schools, potentially disrupting education in affected areas. While other natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and heatwaves have been studied extensively for their impacts on educational attainment, the effects of tornadoes on educational outcomes remain largely unexamined in the literature. To investigate these effects, I make use of data from the National Centers for Environmental Information tracking tornado events and their locations in the United States. I use a differences-in-differences approach comparing educational outcomes from the Stanford Educational Data Archive in affected and unaffected school districts before and after tornadoes. I find that there are statistically insignificant effects of exposure to tornadoes on educational attainment. In contrast to other natural hazards, this may be attributed to the relative unpredictability and specificity of tornadoes.