Winter Storm Fern swept across a huge swath of the United States in January 2026, revealing both vulnerabilities and progress on the climate resilience and adaptation front.
Twenty-three billion-dollar disasters, $115 billion in damage, and not one hurricane: 2025 was a masterclass in how climate risk in the U.S. has changed.
Twenty-three billion-dollar weather and climate disasters struck the United States in 2025, revealing important takeaways for decision-makers in the real estate, public infrastructure, and insurance sectors.
The Weekly: Winter Storm Fern Was Another Test Case for Grid Resilience
Winter Storm Fern swept across a huge swath of the United States in January 2026, revealing both vulnerabilities and progress on the climate resilience and adaptation front.
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Winter Storm Fern swept across a huge swath of the United States last week, stretching from the Mexican border to Canada and triggering emergencies in at least 24 states. The damage toll painted a familiar picture: over 700 ice damage reports, more than 1 million customers without power at peak, and economic loss estimates between $105-$115 billion.
The storm hit hardest where there was an overwhelmed and aging power grid and unwinterized assets: Appalachia saw extended blackouts as poles broke and transmission lines buckled.
But Fern also showed us what works. Texas's grid, the poster child for winter vulnerability after the catastrophic Winter Storm Uri in 2021, held steady. Four years of targeted winterization investments and infrastructure upgrades paid dividends.
An old grid is a vulnerable one. Investments in four key areas can be the difference between failure and resilience during winter storms:
Modernizing grid infrastructure: New “gridtech” (like advanced conductor cables and dynamic line ratings) can prepare the grid in anticipation of a winter storm and fortify it when it hits. Right now, one of the grid’s biggest vulnerabilities is old poles: The Tennessee Valley Authority saw more than two dozen transmission lines collapse during Winter Storm Fern, leaving 300,000 customers in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana without power for days. Fiberglass composite poles are more expensive on the front end, but have better durability and require less upkeep.
Installing more microgrids and battery capacity to reduce grid vulnerability: Municipalities across the country are adopting microgrids to build resiliency into power generation during winter storms (Texas microgrid adoption is up nearly 20x in the past decade). During Winter Storm Fern in Texas, 14 gigawatts of new battery storage capacity augmented energy supply during critical stretches of high heat demand.
Rolling out more renewable energy to reduce fossil-fuel dependence: A fossil-fuel-powered grid is particularly vulnerable during cold temperatures and winter storms. The fossil fuel fleet of PJM, the largest U.S. grid operator, struggled badly during Fern: Gas and coal plants experienced over 20 gigawatts of unplanned outages on Sunday, January 25th, around 16% of total demand on the grid at the time. Meanwhile, wind generation outperformed expectations, with nearly nine gigawatts higher output than expected over Jan 24th and 25th.
Winterizing the grid: There are specific ways to keep the grid warm, like insulating critical components, building permanent or temporary windbreaks around equipment, or using temporary heat systems on localized freezing problems. Texas's post-Uri weatherization investments—like insulating pipes, protecting control systems from ice, weatherproofing important systems, and instituting more inspections—kept its generation plants online throughout Fern, avoiding the rolling blackouts of 2021.
An economic analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas found that winterizing the grid is a worthwhile investment compared to the hundreds of billions of dollars of damage from a storm like Uri. Fern proved the point again: When wooden poles installed decades ago still carry our electricity the same way Samuel Morse strung telegraph wires in 1843, the bill for underinvestment will come due.
But when we invest in resilient infrastructure, like upgraded poles, weatherized equipment, and distributed generation, that infrastructure will pay dividends through every winter storm that follows.
Read more about making the grid more resilient for major winter storms in The Epicenter’s Winter Storm Briefing here.
A No-Regrets Plan for Managing Flood Risk | InnSure Insights | The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has survived on short-term extensions and now faces calls for elimination. This piece argues that the smartest response isn’t betting on NFIP reform or full privatization, but investing in “insurability”: removing the barriers that stand between a property and functional risk transfer.
Digging Out From Under Winter Storm Losses | JD Supra | From burst pipes to business interruption, winter storms like Fern create a complex web of insurance claims and legal disputes. This article breaks down what policyholders and insurers need to know.
The ROI of Investing in Nature for Climate Adaptation | The Global Center on Adaptation | The GCA argues that nature-based solutions should be treated as non-optional resilience infrastructure. Wetlands, forests, and reefs can significantly reduce climate risk and long-term losses, but they remain underfunded due to gaps in valuation and financing tools.
A Push to End a Fractured Approach to Post-Fire Contamination Removal | Los Angeles Times | California lawmakers are moving to clarify how toxic contamination is tested after wildfires, addressing long-standing confusion for homeowners trying to rebuild safely amid conflicting guidance.
Read more about resilient public infrastructure and government solutions on The Epicenter here.
Real Estate & Construction
Trump Signs Order to Speed Up Rebuilds of Homes Affected by 2025 LA Wildfires | The Guardian | A new executive order aimed at speeding wildfire reconstruction in Los Angeles is raising concerns about equity, environmental safeguards, and long-term resilience. The Guardian explores whether faster rebuilding could come at the cost of safer rebuilding.
In Hurricane-Prone Florida, Legislators Reconsider New Growth and Development Law | Inside Climate News | Facing rising seas and stronger storms, Florida legislators are revisiting earlier decisions that sidelined climate resilience. SB 180 effectively froze local planning and zoning regulations, making it difficult to create new land development policies for better stormwater management or natural infrastructure.
Read more about resilient real estate on The Epicenter here.
Private Investment
Resilient Health: A New Investment Frontier | World Economic Forum | Climate change is reshaping health risks, opening a new frontier for resilience investment. This article makes the case that public health investment areas, such as heat-resilient hospitals and disease surveillance, are central to climate adaptation.
Winter Storms: The Cost Drivers and Associated Opportunities For Investors | The Epicenter Editors | There are no silver bullet solutions for the private sector to adopt to dramatically reduce the costs of winter storms. The biggest lever to bring costs down exists in modernizing and winterizing the grid—an endeavor that will require substantial technological, mechanical, and financial investments.
FORTIFIED Roofs and Homes Are Saving Alabama Homeowners and Insurers Thousands | The Epicenter Editors | Homeowners who built their homes to IBHS-certified FORTIFIED standards saved thousands after Hurricane Sally hit in 2020. The FORTIFIED building standard is saving homes from Category 3 storm damage, and also saving homeowners and insurance companies costs on annual insurance premiums and claims.
From Disaster To Blueprint: How Greenline's Model Could Transform Post-Fire Recovery | The Epicenter Editors | The Greenline Housing Foundation is helping Altadena residents recover, rebuild, and remain in the neighborhood following January's devastating fire. This profile of Greenline’s work examines how rebuilding with resiliency can drive a recovery that preserves wealth and gets residents back home.
The Statistic of the Week
245 gigawatts
In the next ten years, winter peak energy demand is expected to grow by 245 gigawatts (enough energy to power 180+ million homes for a year) in the US and Canada, increasing grid stress during extreme cold events.
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The Epicenter helps decision makers understand climate risks and discover viable resilience solutions. The Epicenter is an affiliated publication of The Resiliency Company, a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to inspiring and empowering humanity to adapt to the accelerating challenges of the next 100+ years.
Unexpected disasters are causing damage in unlikely places, forcing decision-makers in the public and private sectors to prepare for the most common disasters in their region as well as the rare, once-in-a-hundred-year ones. But strategies exist to help decision-makers prepare for the unexpected.
There are no silver bullet solutions for the private sector to adopt to dramatically reduce the costs of winter storms. The biggest lever to bring costs down exists in modernizing and winterizing the grid—an endeavor that will require substantial technological, mechanical, and financial investments.
Extreme weather events wreak havoc on a grid not designed to endure their frequency and intensity, but there are solutions to build resiliency. 1. Modernize grid infrastructure; 2. Install more microgrids; 3. Roll out more renewable energy to reduce fossil-fuel dependence
