(Press-News.org) An understanding of the relationship between severe weather and power outages in our changing climate will be critical for hazard response plans, according to a study published January 22, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate by Vivian Do of Columbia University, New York and colleagues.
Throughout the United States, large-scale power outages commonly occur alongside severe weather events. These combined events can be associated with major economic costs and health risks, as loss of power can disrupt medical equipment, heating or air conditioning, and other important systems. As severe weather events increase in severity and frequency due to climate change, understanding the patterns and distribution of these outages is critical for community preparation and resource allocation.
In this study, Do and colleagues compiled data from 2018-2020 on severe weather events (including rain, snow, heat, cold, cyclones, and wildfire) and large-scale power outages lasting eight hours or more for over 1600 counties across the United States. The data reveal that nearly 75% of these counties experienced major power outages alongside severe weather events during this three-year period, and over 50% of counties experienced outages alongside multiple simultaneous weather events.
Outages most commonly occurred alongside severe precipitation and heat, but the events are not distributed evenly, with precipitation-associated outages more common in the Northeast US and heat-associated outages more common in the Southeast. This study also found that co-occurring outages and wildfires along the West Coast became increasingly common from 2018 to 2020.
The researchers note that reliable data was not available for all US counties, so information is limited in regions such as the Southwest and Mountain West. Do and colleagues suggest that further research providing additional data, along with simulations of severe weather combinations in different locations will be useful for developing mitigation and response tactics.
First author Vivian Do adds: “Power outages frequently co-occur with severe weather events like heavy precipitation, tropical cyclones, or multiple severe weather events simultaneously. Understanding patterns of where and when power outages and severe weather events co-occur is crucial for informing strategies to minimize societal consequences, especially as the electrical grid ages and climate change drives more severe weather events.”
####
In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Climate: https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000523
Citation: Do V, Wilner LB, Flores NM, McBrien H, Northrop AJ, Casey JA (2025) Spatiotemporal patterns of individual and multiple simultaneous severe weather events co-occurring with power outages in the United States, 2018–2020. PLOS Clim 4(1): e0000523. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000523
Author Countries: United States
Funding: This work was funded by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) P30 ES009089 (JAC), 5T32ES007322-22 (VD), and P30ES007033 (JAC), the National Institute on Aging (NIA) grant RF1AG071024 (JAC), and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grant F31 HL172608 (VD). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
END
Severe weather and major power outages increasingly coincide across the US
Nationwide patterns of severe events provide crucial data for hazard response and mitigation
2025-01-22
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Bioluminescent cell imaging gets a glow-up
2025-01-22
Osaka, Japan – Imaging live cells with fluorescent proteins has long been a crucial technique for understanding cellular behavior. While bioluminescent proteins offer several advantages over fluorescent proteins, the limited availability of color variants has made it difficult to observe multiple targets simultaneously. Now, researchers from SANKEN (The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research) at Osaka University have developed a groundbreaking method to expand the color palette of bioluminescent protein to 20 distinct colors, enabling advanced simultaneous multi-color imaging.
Cells are the fundamental building blocks of life. Understanding how they function is essential ...
Float like a jellyfish: New coral mobility mechanisms uncovered
2025-01-22
When it comes time to migrate, QUT research has found how a free-living coral ignores the classic advice and goes straight towards the light.
The research – led by Dr Brett Lewis from the QUT School of Atmospheric and Earth Sciences and Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program, and published in PLOS One – investigated how the free-living mushroom coral Cycloseris cyclolites moves, navigates and responds to light in its natural environments.
“Not all corals are attached to the substrate; some are solitary and free-living, allowing them to migrate into preferred habitats,” ...
Severe weather and major power outages increasingly coincide across the U.S.
2025-01-22
An understanding of the relationship between severe weather and power outages in our changing climate will be critical for hazard response plans, according to a study led by a researcher at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The study is published in the open-access journal PLOS Climate.
Throughout the U.S., large-scale power outages commonly occur alongside severe weather events. These combined events can be associated with major economic costs and health risks, as loss of power can disrupt medical equipment, heating or air conditioning, and other important systems. As severe weather events increase in severity and frequency ...
Who to vaccinate first? Penn engineers answer a life-or-death question with network theory
2025-01-22
Engineering and medical researchers at Penn have developed a groundbreaking framework that can determine the best and most computationally optimized distribution strategy for COVID-19 vaccinations in any given community. Published in PLOS One, this study addresses one of the most critical challenges in pandemic response — how to prioritize vaccination efforts in communities with individuals of different risk levels when supplies are scarce and the stakes are high.
The research team, comprised of Saswati Sarkar, Professor ...
Research shows PTSD, anxiety may affect reproductive health of women firefighters
2025-01-22
TUCSON, Arizona — A new study led by University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health researchers in collaboration with fire service partners and other researchers around the country through the Fire Fighter Cancer Cohort Study showed that post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety are associated with lower levels of anti-Müllerian hormone, a marker of ovarian reserve, among women firefighters.
The ovarian reserve is the number of healthy eggs in a woman’s ovaries that ...
U of M Medical School research team receives $1.2M grant to study Tourette syndrome treatment
2025-01-22
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (1/22/2025) — A research team from the University of Minnesota Medical School recently received a three-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as a treatment for youth with Tourette syndrome and other tic disorders.
These conditions affect one in every 50 children and are characterized by involuntary movements or sounds called “tics.” Tics are often painful, distressing and interfere with daily life activities. In some cases, tics can be quite disabling.
The research team recently completed the first phase of this clinical trial ...
In the hunt for new and better enzymes, AI steps to the fore
2025-01-22
Enzymes are crucial to life. They are nature’s little catalysts. In the gut, they help us digest food. They can enhance perfumes or get laundry cleaner with less energy. Enzymes also make potent drugs to treat disease. Scientists naturally are eager to create new enzymes. They imagine them doing everything from drawing greenhouse gases out of the skies to degrading harmful toxins in the environment.
That age-old quest for new enzymes just got a whole lot easier. A team of bioengineers and synthetic biologists has developed a computational workflow that can design thousands of new enzymes, predict how they will behave in the real world, and test their performance ...
Females have a 31% higher associated risk of developing long COVID, UT Health San Antonio-led RECOVER study shows
2025-01-22
SAN ANTONIO, Jan. 22, 2025 – Females have a 31% higher associated risk of developing long COVID, with women aged 40 to 55 years having the highest propensity, according to a study led by The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) funded by the National Institutes of Health.
The findings are part of a nationwide initiative launched by NIH, called Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery, or RECOVER, to understand the long-term health effects of COVID-19.
The latest ...
Final synthetic yeast chromosome unlocks new era in biotechnology
2025-01-22
Macquarie University researchers have worked with an international team of scientists to achieve a major milestone in synthetic biology by completing the creation of the final chromosome in the world's first synthetic yeast genome.
This achievement represents the completion of the global Sc2.0 project to create the world's first synthetic eukaryotic genome from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast) and a new-to-nature tRNA neochromosome.
Using cutting-edge genome-editing techniques, including the CRISPR D-BUGS protocol, the team identified and corrected genetic errors that impacted yeast growth. These changes restored the strain’s ability to grow on glycerol, ...
AI-powered prediction model enhances blood transfusion decision-making in ICU patients
2025-01-22
Researchers at Emory University have developed a groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) model capable of accurately predicting the likelihood of blood transfusion in non-traumatic intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Published in Health Data Science, the study addresses longstanding challenges in predicting transfusion needs across diverse patient groups with varying medical conditions.
Blood transfusions are critical in managing anemia and coagulopathy in ICU settings, yet current clinical decision support systems often ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Cercus electric stimulation enables cockroach with trajectory control and spatial cognition training
Day-long conference addresses difficult to diagnose lung disease
First-ever cardiogenic shock academy features simulation lab
Thirty-year mystery of dissonance in the “ringing” of black holes explained
Less intensive works best for agricultural soil
Arctic rivers project receives “national champion” designation from frontiers foundation
Computational biology paves the way for new ALS tests
Study offers new hope for babies born with opioid withdrawal syndrome
UT, Volkswagen Group of America celebrate research partnership
New Medicare program could dramatically improve affordability for cancer drugs – if patients enroll
Are ‘zombie’ skin cells harmful or helpful? The answer may be in their shapes
University of Cincinnati Cancer Center presents research at AACR 2025
Head and neck, breast, lung and survivorship studies headline Dana-Farber research at AACR Annual Meeting 2025
AACR: Researchers share promising results from MD Anderson clinical trials
New research explains why our waistlines expand in middle age
Advancements in muon detection: Taishan Antineutrino Observatory's innovative top veto tracker
Chips off the old block
Microvascular decompression combined with nerve combing for atypical trigeminal neuralgia
Cutting the complexity from digital carpentry
Lung immune cell type “quietly” controls inflammation in COVID-19
Fiscal impact of expanded Medicare coverage for GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat obesity
State and sociodemographic trends in US cigarette smoking with future projections
Young adults drive historic decline in smoking
NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research
Chimpanzee stem cells offer new insights into early embryonic development
This injected protein-like polymer helps tissues heal after a heart attack
FlexTech inaugural issue launches, pioneering interdisciplinary innovation in flexible technology
In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity
Methyl eugenol: potential to inhibit oxidative stress, address related diseases, and its toxicological effects
A vascularized multilayer chip reveals shear stress-induced angiogenesis in diverse fluid conditions
[Press-News.org] Severe weather and major power outages increasingly coincide across the USNationwide patterns of severe events provide crucial data for hazard response and mitigation