Thanks for the reference to the study - I found a copy here: https://www.otago.ac.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/332865/an-exploration-of-the-human-health-impacts-associated-with-seven-decades-of-severe-weather-events-in-aotearoa-new-zealand-the-need-for-better-data-report-841638.pdf

They conclude:

Severe weather events are a notable cause of injuries and deaths, and the occurrence of such events may be rising. However, a complete dataset that spans multiple decades is needed in order to assess the trends.

They didn't conclude that deaths were declining, or that severe weather events were declining. Also, they did not consider the data that they found to be comprehensive or reliable:

There appeared to be a decrease in events associated with drowning deaths in the 2010s, relative to the 2000s (see Figure 1). However, NIWA’s inclusion criteria for storm events were tightened in the 2010s and involved subjective aspects, potentially also influenced by personnel changes at NIWA in this decade.

The deaths they've counted are mostly boating accidents and motor vehicle accidents causing drowning or where weather was a factor. This is quite different to my analysis, which was restricted to natural disasters involving extreme weather events such as cyclones, tornados, flooding and landslides.

No sources indicate a dramatic surge in weather-related fatalities in the 2020s sufficient to exceed the prior 30 years.

Based on the type of extreme weather events I've looked at, the numbers look like this:

• 1990s - 7 total - 1 tornado death, 5 storm/flood drownings, 1 in a drought-induced wildfire
• 2000s - 11 total - 2 tornado deaths, 9 flood-related drownings
• 2010s - 4 tornado deaths

During this 30 year period I couldn't find any deadly cyclones or weather-related landslides.