Cities like Miami are all too familiar with hurricane-related power outages. But a Johns Hopkins University analysis finds climate change will give other major metro¹ areas a lot to worry about in future storms. Johns Hopkins engineers created a computer model to predict the increasing vulnerability to hurricanes of power grids² in major cities on or relatively³ near the Atlantic and Gulf⁴ coasts. They factored historic hurricane information in with plausible⁵ scenarios⁶ for future storm behavior, given a global rise in average temperatures. With that data, the team could pinpoint⁷ which of 27 cities, from Texas to Maine, will become more susceptible⁸ to blackouts caused by future hurricanes.

 

Topping the list of cities most likely to see big increases in their power outage risk are New York; Philadelphia; Jacksonville, Florida; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Hartford, Connecticut. Cities at the bottom of the list, whose future risk of outages is unlikely to dramatically change, include Memphis, Tennessee; Dallas; Pittsburgh; Atlanta; and Buffalo⁹, New York.

 

Seth Guikema, an associate professor in the university's Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, said his team's analysis could help metropolitan¹⁰ areas better plan for climate change.

 

Although planning for climate change is difficult due to the high degree of uncertainty¹¹ about how hurricanes of the future will behave, the team examined a range of potential changes in hurricane activity and quantified how those changes are likely to influence power outage risk. By being able to anticipate these risks, officials have a chance to protect cities against damage and to reinforce their power grids, he said.

 

"We provide insight into how power systems along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts may be affected¹² by climate changes, including which areas should be most concerned and which ones are unlikely to see substantial change," Guikema said. "If I'm mayor of Miami, we know about hurricanes, we know about outages and our system has been adapted for it. But if I'm mayor of Philadelphia, I might say, 'Whoa; we need to be doing more about this."

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