Co-occurring climate events and environmental justice in California, 2018–2019
Climate change will increase the frequency of extreme weather events. This means climate-driven events like wildfires and power outages will likely co-occur more often, potentially magnifying their health risks. We characterized three types of climate-driven events—anomalously warm temperatures, wil...
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research: Health |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/ada96f |
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| author | Brittany Shea Gabriella Y Meltzer Benjamin B Steiger Robbie M Parks Vivian Do Heather McBrien Nina Flores Milo Gordon Elizabeth M Blake Joan A Casey |
| author_facet | Brittany Shea Gabriella Y Meltzer Benjamin B Steiger Robbie M Parks Vivian Do Heather McBrien Nina Flores Milo Gordon Elizabeth M Blake Joan A Casey |
| author_sort | Brittany Shea |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Climate change will increase the frequency of extreme weather events. This means climate-driven events like wildfires and power outages will likely co-occur more often, potentially magnifying their health risks. We characterized three types of climate-driven events—anomalously warm temperatures, wildfire burn zone disasters, and long power outages—in 58 California counties during 2018–2019. We defined county-day anomalously warm temperatures when daily average temperatures exceeded 24 °C and the 85th percentile of the long-term county average. We defined county-day wildfire burn zone disasters when an active wildfire burn zone intersected a county, burned 1+ structures, killed a civilian, or received a Federal Emergency Management Agency Fire Management Declaration, and overlapped with a community. For a subset of the 38 counties (66%), long power outage county days were identified using PowerOutage.us data when an outage affected >0.5% of county customers for 8+ h. Co-occurring events were when 2+ of these events occurred on the same county day. Using the CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), we determined whether co-occurring events disproportionately affected vulnerable populations. Nearly every county (97%) experienced at least one day of anomalously warm temperatures, 57% had at least one wildfire burn zone disaster day, and 63% (24/38 counties with available data) had at least one long power outage day. The most common co-occurring events (anomalously warm temperatures and wildfire burn zone disasters) impacted 24 (41%) counties for 144 total county-days. We did not find a clear connection between co-occurring events and social vulnerability. We observed an inverse correlation between co-occurring wildfire burn zone disasters and long power outage days with SVI, and a positive correlation between co-occurring anomalously warm and long power outage days with SVI. This analysis can inform regional resource allocation and other state-wide planning and policy objectives to reduce the adverse effects of climate-driven events. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-cb47a294099848e8b21043b1a66a132c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2752-5309 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research: Health |
| spelling | doaj-art-cb47a294099848e8b21043b1a66a132c2025-02-05T13:49:42ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research: Health2752-53092025-01-013202100110.1088/2752-5309/ada96fCo-occurring climate events and environmental justice in California, 2018–2019Brittany Shea0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2545-3634Gabriella Y Meltzer1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6885-9730Benjamin B Steiger2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8324-9562Robbie M Parks3Vivian Do4Heather McBrien5Nina Flores6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2723-1728Milo Gordon7Elizabeth M Blake8Joan A Casey9Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health , New York, NY, United States of AmericaThe Collaborative for Women’s Environmental Health, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center , New York, NY, United States of AmericaDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health , New York, NY, United States of AmericaDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health , New York, NY, United States of AmericaDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health , New York, NY, United States of AmericaDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health , New York, NY, United States of AmericaDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health , New York, NY, United States of AmericaDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health , New York, NY, United States of AmericaDepartment of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Washington School of Public Health , Seattle, WA, United States of AmericaDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health , New York, NY, United States of America; Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Washington School of Public Health , Seattle, WA, United States of America; Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington School of Public Health , Seattle, WA, United States of AmericaClimate change will increase the frequency of extreme weather events. This means climate-driven events like wildfires and power outages will likely co-occur more often, potentially magnifying their health risks. We characterized three types of climate-driven events—anomalously warm temperatures, wildfire burn zone disasters, and long power outages—in 58 California counties during 2018–2019. We defined county-day anomalously warm temperatures when daily average temperatures exceeded 24 °C and the 85th percentile of the long-term county average. We defined county-day wildfire burn zone disasters when an active wildfire burn zone intersected a county, burned 1+ structures, killed a civilian, or received a Federal Emergency Management Agency Fire Management Declaration, and overlapped with a community. For a subset of the 38 counties (66%), long power outage county days were identified using PowerOutage.us data when an outage affected >0.5% of county customers for 8+ h. Co-occurring events were when 2+ of these events occurred on the same county day. Using the CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), we determined whether co-occurring events disproportionately affected vulnerable populations. Nearly every county (97%) experienced at least one day of anomalously warm temperatures, 57% had at least one wildfire burn zone disaster day, and 63% (24/38 counties with available data) had at least one long power outage day. The most common co-occurring events (anomalously warm temperatures and wildfire burn zone disasters) impacted 24 (41%) counties for 144 total county-days. We did not find a clear connection between co-occurring events and social vulnerability. We observed an inverse correlation between co-occurring wildfire burn zone disasters and long power outage days with SVI, and a positive correlation between co-occurring anomalously warm and long power outage days with SVI. This analysis can inform regional resource allocation and other state-wide planning and policy objectives to reduce the adverse effects of climate-driven events.https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/ada96fclimate changedisasterssocial vulnerabilitytemperaturepower outageswildfires |
| spellingShingle | Brittany Shea Gabriella Y Meltzer Benjamin B Steiger Robbie M Parks Vivian Do Heather McBrien Nina Flores Milo Gordon Elizabeth M Blake Joan A Casey Co-occurring climate events and environmental justice in California, 2018–2019 Environmental Research: Health climate change disasters social vulnerability temperature power outages wildfires |
| title | Co-occurring climate events and environmental justice in California, 2018–2019 |
| title_full | Co-occurring climate events and environmental justice in California, 2018–2019 |
| title_fullStr | Co-occurring climate events and environmental justice in California, 2018–2019 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Co-occurring climate events and environmental justice in California, 2018–2019 |
| title_short | Co-occurring climate events and environmental justice in California, 2018–2019 |
| title_sort | co occurring climate events and environmental justice in california 2018 2019 |
| topic | climate change disasters social vulnerability temperature power outages wildfires |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5309/ada96f |
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