Winter storms and hurricane-force winds have caused serious damage and led to long power outages in entire regions of Europe and North America in recent weeks.
Storm Blair, which passed through the United States at the beginning of the new year, caused chaos on the roads, led to the closure of airports, schools and hospitals and left hundreds of thousands of subscribers without electricity from the East to the West Coast. The snow, freezing rain and low temperatures have hampered emergency crews' efforts and it is expected to take several days to restore power to the affected areas.
Appalachian Power, which serves parts of West Virginia, said 475 downed power lines, 80 broken poles and 30 damaged transformers were reported in its territory alone. Meteorologists predict that the bad weather and heavy snowfall will continue, which is why local authorities have urged people to be extra careful and help their neighbors and loved ones who may be without heat due to the lack of electricity.
To the south, in California, the strongest hurricane-force winds in a decade have caused huge fires, especially in the Los Angeles area. On January 8, more than 413,000 customers in Southern California were without power due to a preventive power outage, according to the latest information from Southern California Edison. The company was forced to turn off power in places where there is a risk of fire from the power distribution network facilities.
Another 450,000 customers are expected to be affected by power outages, which are imposed for safety reasons, Southern California Edison reported. The company predicts that the outages could last until the late afternoon of January 10 at the earliest.
Europe in winter chaos
Thousands of customers in England and Scotland were also left in the dark due to snowstorms in the first days of the new year. Thousands of households were also without power in the Scandinavian countries, where strong winds and snow caused numerous accidents and chaos on roads and airports. Many drivers were stranded in their cars for hours on congested and impassable highways.
Earlier this week, Finland and Sweden recorded temperatures of -43C - the lowest temperatures of the winter. In northern Sweden, nearly 4,000 homes were without power on January 2, when temperatures fell to -38C, Swedish public radio reported.
At the end of last year, Storm Daragh left half a million customers without power in the United Kingdom. Hurricane-force winds of up to 150km/h toppled trees, damaged electrical equipment, cut telephone and internet services, and blocked airports and rail services in many parts of England, Scotland and Wales. The hurricane-force winds and torrential rain hampered emergency services and in some places power was only restored three or four days later.
In November, another storm - Bert - left at least 60,000 homes in Ireland without power, closed roads and disrupted some ferry and train routes on both sides of the Irish Sea.
Climate change and increasingly frequent extreme weather events will continue to test the power infrastructure. A recent report showed that in the period 2020-2023 in the United States, 80% of power outages were caused by severe weather, with 23% being the result of snowstorms. More than 35% of outages in the period 2017 - 2023 lasted more than a day.
Energy companies and institutions have yet to come to terms with the changing situation. However, this cannot happen without the development of energy technologies that are sufficiently resilient to the new conditions, and without ensuring the necessary investments for them.