Incoming winter storm: Rice experts available to discuss forecast and impacts
As a major winter storm is expected to move into Texas beginning Friday night, bringing icy roads, snow and prolonged subfreezing temperatures across much of the state, Rice University experts are available to provide insight into the storm’s impact on transportation, the grid and how it compares with past cold weather events.
Daniel Cohan specializes in the development of atmospheric models and their application to air quality management, energy policy and health studies. He can speak about issues related to the power grid.
Inferred demand for heating based on cold temperature extremes (6 hour and 2-day duration events) over the past decades (Image courtesy of James Doss-Gollin)James Doss-Gollin combines physics- and AI-based methods to understand the characteristics of weather and climate hazards, and to identify adaptation strategies that meet multiple pbjectives across a wide range of possible futures. Doss-Gollin, who leads the AI4UrbanResilience research cluster at Rice’s Ken Kennedy Institute, can discuss forecast ranges and how this event compares to past cold events such as Winter Storm Uri.
Xinwu Qian uses mathematical modeling and data-driven methods for transportation system challenges and can speak to roadway icing, travel safety, resource allocation and how transportation systems respond to winter weather in Texas.
Julie Cohn’s work focuses on energy infrastructures, environmental history, technological change and the relationships between government, business and the public. Her book, “The Grid, Biography of an American Technology” (MIT Press, 2017), examines the history of electrification in North America, and especially the story of how and why power companies chose to interconnect. Her current projects include investigation of electrification in Texas over the past century; Cohn applies historical lessons to contemporary energy challenges.
To schedule an interview with Rice’s experts, contact media relations specialists Silvia Cernea Clark at scc220@rice.edu, Alex Becker at alex.becker@rice.edu or Avery Ruxer Franklin at averyrf@rice.edu.
