Hot topic or shockingly irrelevant: Which factors influence German media coverage of natural disasters?

News coverage on natural disaster events varies in its likelihood and extent due to journalistic selection. Event-inherent news factors can explain this variation. This quantitative content analysis found damage and visuality to be strong predictors of disaster-related news coverage in Germany while geographical proximity does not play a significant role. Results regarding social proximity and classification of disasters as climatological are nuanced. Furthermore, various news outlets exert diverging gatekeeping strategies in relation to natural disasters.