By: Meredith Oglesby
It seems we hear it every day: Today’s extreme weather conditions cause havoc for farmers, businesses and even our own households. Hurricanes, wildfires, periods of drought and major storm events pervade daily weather forecasts as we realize the established climate patterns are changing.
Climatologists have tracked evidence of changing weather patterns since before the 1980s. What were once considered weather anomalies are now identified as changing global climate patterns.
Just listening to weather reports can cause distress, but at The Ohio State University, researchers study our changing weather systems to mitigate the impacts on infrastructure, agriculture, utility companies, insurance providers, first responders … the list goes on and on.
More than 75 climatology researchers from five academic colleges work at Ohio State, with research spanning a broad range of themes: natural and agricultural sciences, engineering, public health, economics and humanities. It also houses the State Climate Office of Ohio, which maintains the state’s climatic archives and collects all current state climatic data. Accessing accurate climate information, education and interpretation is critical for Ohio’s rural areas, towns and cities; local, regional and global businesses; and government officials and policy makers; and the state’s residents.
For Steven Quiring, professor in the Department of Geography, a lifelong interest in weather led him to a career that includes hydroclimatology, synoptic climatology and applying climate data to solve relevant problems for society. His research focuses on land/atmosphere interactions and modeling the impacts of weather events, and his expertise in weather modeling has created partnership opportunities with utility, insurance and energy companies.
Quiring, an affiliated faculty member of Ohio State’s Sustainability Institute and Translational Data Analytics Institute, models the impacts of weather events on power infrastructure and crop yields. He also looks to improve the understanding of land-atmosphere interactions and seasonal climate predictability.
“I'm interested in predicting the occurrence of drought, understanding where it occurs, when it occurs and why it occurs and looking at the mechanisms that are involved,” Quiring says.
This information proves useful in the Midwest, where the four seasons allow for more variability and precipitation throughout the year.
“This year in Ohio was an interesting example of our changing weather patterns, where we went from no water to too much water and then back to no water,” Quiring says. “That kind of variability in precipitation is going to be one of the biggest climate issues.”
Looking at drought risk and flood risk, Quiring already sees evidence that the hydroclimate of the Midwest is becoming extreme.
“Precipitation overall is increasing in the Midwest, which could be seen as a good thing for a place that's agriculturally based, but it's not so much about the amount of rainfall as it is about the intensity of rainfall,” Quiring says, explaining that more extreme patterns of rain lead to runoff and soil erosion, which will cause issues for agriculture.
Extreme weather events have impacts on all facets of daily life for businesses, industries and consumers. Quiring collaborates with companies to learn their business process and gather data on the past impacts of weather and climate on their systems. He can help them improve decision making for past and future weather events by building, training and validating models.
“I use weather and climate information to support decision making,” Quiring says. “That decision making could be for electrical utilities, for insurance companies or for other businesses that have weather sensitive operations.”
Currently, Quiring has contracts with American Electric Power in Columbus, Ohio; First Energy in Akron, Ohio; and Southern Co. in Birmingham, Alabama.
“For these utilities, we develop models to predict the number of customers who might lose power and the amount of damage they might have to their systems, such as how many poles might break as weather events are occurring.” Quiring says.
Businesses like utility companies are responding to consumer concerns and adapting smarter, more resilient technology for future generations.
“One thing electric utilities in Ohio and other places are looking to do is increase the reliability of the power system,” Quiring says. “In areas where we know that storms may increase, we need to build smarter infrastructure that is more resilient, such as using steel instead of wood for electric line poles to make the poles more durable and therefore less likely to fail.”
In collaboration with Waleed Muhanna, a professor in Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business, Quiring also works with Nationwide Insurance to understand the impact major weather events have on the number of damage claims they expect to receive and the total insured losses.
“Insurance companies want to get better models and better predictions in advance, especially for things like hurricanes or hail storms. These are the kind of major events that cause large losses for them,” Quiring says. “With better modeling, companies know where to send their adjusters and how much exposure they expect to have.”
Weather research and data analytics help scientists develop different tools, technologies and strategies needed when extreme weather hits.
“When we are thinking about the insurance claims, power outages or lost agricultural fields, it’s the extreme events that cause the disruptions,” Quiring said. “It is the changes in variability that are most problematic.”
Quiring teaches courses including “Weather, Climate and Global Warming” and “Problems in Climatology.” His students look at the latest information and impacts from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to understand the science related to climate change and how global warming is impacting our weather. Different exercises allow students to reflect on what they have experienced in their lifetime and how they can become informed consumers to decrease their environmental footprint.
“If consumers say, ‘I'm not going to use plastic straws anymore,’ well, now businesses are going to respond by looking at biodegradable straws, right?” Quiring says. “Because consumers have spoken, businesses are responding. That is not going to necessarily save the planet, but it's a small example of how consumers expressing their preferences and desires leads to changes that are much larger.”
As extreme weather events persist and what we recognize as typical weather zones evolve and change, everyone will experience the impacts of climate change.
“I tell my students, if you name any industry or business, I can tell you, in some way, how weather and climate impacts that business,” Quiring says.
And at Ohio State, Quiring is preparing the next generation of climate change experts who can then help companies plan for those extreme weather events.
Meredith Oglesby is a communication assistant for the Sustainability Institute.