This document presents the current scientific understanding of the relationship between climate change and various types of extreme weather events, including extreme cold, extreme heat, precipitation, droughts, wildfires and coastal flooding. Climate change has occurred, and more is likely, with changes in extreme weather expected. Projected changes in sea levels, extreme heat and cold are much more certain than changes in precipitation, drought and wildfires. However, a warmer climate is not necessarily the primary driver of all these extremes as many factors, such as human influence and natural climate variability, may also contribute to inter-annual and long-term changes. As such, these other factors are also relevant to managing extreme weather risk. This document concludes with EPRI's approach to systematically examining potential climate impacts and responses for utility operations and planning.
Authors Delavane Diaz, Laura Fischer, Steven Rose, Erik Smith