Winter Storm Uri: A Test of Texas’ Water Infrastructure and Water Resource Resilience to Extreme Winter Weather Events

We synthesize the interconnected impacts of Texas’ water and energy resources and infrastructure including the cascading effects due to Winter Storm Uri. The government’s preparedness, communication, policies, and response as well as storm impacts on vulnerable communities are evaluated using available information and data. Where knowledge gaps exist, we propose potential research to elucidate health, environmental, policy, and economic impacts of the extreme weather event. We expect that recommendations made here — while specific to the situation and outcomes of Winter Storm Uri — will increase Texas’ resilience to other extreme weather events not discussed in this paper. We found that out of 14 million residents who were on boil water notices, those who were served by very small water systems went, on average, a minimum of three days longer without potable water. Available county-level data do not indicate vulnerable communities went longer periods of time without power or water during the event. More resolved data are required to understand who was most heavily impacted at the community or neighborhood level. Gaps in government communication, response, and policy are discussed, including issues with identifying — and securing power to — critical infrastructure and the fact that the state’s Emergency Alert System was not used consistently to update Texans during the crisis. Finally, research recommendations are made to bolster weaknesses discovered during and after the storm including (1) reliable communication strategies, (2) reducing disproportionate impacts to vulnerable communities, (3) human health impacts, (4) increasing water infrastructure resilience, and (5) how climate change could impact infrastructure resilience into the future.

Assessing the Impact of a Winter Storm on the Beach and Dune Systems and Erosion Mitigation by Plants

The impact of storms on coastal dunes and beaches and the effects they induce in topography and plant communities are natural processes that contribute to maintaining natural coastal dynamics. However, because coasts are often densely populated, these phenomena are perceived as major threats to human property. To protect human assets sustainably, nature-based defenses have emerged as an option. Coastal dunes act as natural buffers that mitigate the extent of erosion and inland flooding, and their resistance depends on the biogeomorphological feedback between the plants and the dunes. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of one winter storm on beach and dune topography and the plant communities, and to explore the effect of plants in mitigating erosion on beaches with different geomorphological features. The effects on plant communities were evaluated by comparing diversity and plant cover before and after the storm. Later, the role of plants in conferring dune resistance against erosion was examined by measuring erosion on the exposed face of the dunes considering plant cover and plant richness. The results did not show significant differences in plant diversity and plant cover between pre-and post-storm conditions, but turnover of species was recorded. The dune building species were not affected but inland species disappeared. Erosion was reduced when the dunes were higher and, furthermore, plant cover was negatively correlated with erosion on these dunes. The results showed a reduced impact of the storm on the plant communities, which is important as it facilitates the recovery of dunes by the dune-building species and protects them in a subsequent storm. The novelty of this study is that: (a) it demonstrates the species-specific role of plants in mitigating dune erosion in field conditions; (b) it shows the interaction between plant-related features and geomorphological variables in promoting dune resistance to erosion, and (c) it explores the immediate effect of a winter storm on the plant community and dune-building species.

Sentiment Analyses of Twitter for Winter Storm Leo

This study sheds new light on sentiment analysis of Twitter for natural disasters according to a magnitude of the importance of information and a multitude of regions and periods. First, this study finds that a winter storm plays a more important role in positive sentiment than negative sentiment based on the magnitude of the importance of information and the number of tweets. Second, people are more interested in sharing information about the weather, such as forecasts and reports, rather than the positive or negative sentiment according to the winter storm. Third, people actively utilize their Twitter for disaster preparation, response, and recovery. Fourth, the spatial patterns of the proportion of tweets in the US states are differentiated by weeks. The results show that governments should develop natural disaster policies by understanding a multitude of human responses, needs, regional characteristics, and periods.

Amphibian breeding phenology influences offspring size and response to a common wetland contaminant

Background Increases in temperature variability associated with climate change have critical implications for the phenology of wildlife across the globe. For example, warmer winter temperatures can induce forward shifts in breeding phenology across taxa (“false springs”), which can put organisms at risk of freezing conditions during reproduction or vulnerable early life stages. As human activities continue to encroach on natural ecosystems, it is also important to consider how breeding phenology interacts with other anthropogenic stressors (e.g., pollutants). Using 14 populations of a widespread amphibian (wood frog; Rana sylvatica), we compared 1) growth; 2) tolerance to a common wetland contaminant (NaCl); and 3) the ability of tadpoles to acclimate to lethal NaCl exposure following sublethal exposure earlier in life. We evaluated these metrics across two breeding seasons (2018 and 2019) and across populations of tadpoles whose parents differed in breeding phenology (earlier- versus later-breeding cohorts). In both years, the earlier-breeding cohorts completed breeding activity prior to a winter storm and later-breeding cohorts completed breeding activities after a winter storm. The freezing conditions that later-breeding cohorts were exposed to in 2018 were more severe in both magnitude and duration than those in 2019. Results In 2018, offspring of the later-breeding cohort were larger but less tolerant of NaCl compared to offspring of the earlier-breeding cohort. The offspring of the earlier-breeding cohort additionally were able to acclimate to a lethal concentration of NaCl following sublethal exposure earlier in life, while the later-breeding cohort became less tolerant of NaCl following acclimation. Interestingly, in 2019, the warmer of the two breeding seasons, we did not detect the negative effects of later breeding phenology on responses to NaCl. Conclusions These results suggest that phenological shifts that expose breeding amphibians to freezing conditions can have cascading consequences on offspring mass and ability to tolerate future stressors but likely depends on the severity of the freeze event.