IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2014 - 68

As climate change occurs, scientists expect extreme events
to become even more severe in some locations, resulting in more
intense precipitation.
our analysis focused on surface winds and their impact
on storm surges and on precipitation and the associated flooding throughout the region after landfall. these objectives were
achieved by simulating, in detail, superstorm sandy as it
occurred and under future climate conditions and then using
modeling output to conduct hazard and impact analysis (see
"sandy: a storm to remember"). increased understanding and
advanced computer simulation that integrates state-of-the-art
weather, impact, and damage models will help in societal and
economic analyses for improved storm hardening, enhancing
preparedness, and planning emergency responses. we demonstrate our forward-looking approach, which takes advantage of
such integration, to explore how climate change can be incorporated in decision making with respect to storm hardening.
further, we show how such integration relies on a close collaboration among experts in different domains. the resulting
case study explores the impacts that superstorm sandy had on
the coastal electrical infrastructure of Long island due to storm
surges and flooding, how such impacts may differ if fundamental climate and environmental parameters change in the future,
and how the integration of the various models can inform decisions about electric infrastructure resilience measures.
superstorm sandy exhibited unusual and unprecedented
characteristics, and it is within this context that we 1)
explored the ability of ncar's regional weather research

and forecasting (wrf) model to accurately simulate sandy's
key features (e.g., landfall timing and location and associated surface wind intensity and extent; precipitation amounts
and spatial distributions; and partitioning between snow and
rain); 2) investigated how superstorm sandy might be different in a future, warmer world, where the surface ocean temperatures are higher and the atmosphere is warmer and holds
more moisture; 3) utilized the outcomes of wrf to drive
storm surge and flooding models and assess the changes
in impacts between the actual sandy event and future scenarios; and 4) integrated the impact assessment with system
specifics of the electric infrastructure onto a common Gis
platform, thus enabling analysis of geographically informed,
risk-based strategies to adapt to future climate threats.

Superstorm Sandy

superstorm sandy made continental u.s. landfall at approximately 8 p.m. eDt on 29 october 2012 (00:00 utc 30
october 2012) near brigantine, new jersey, with winds of
80 mi/h (130 km/h) spanning a 1,800-km path (see figure 2).
it was the largest atlantic hurricane on record, taking 286
lives and causing more than us$68 billion in property
damage-the second-costliest hurricane in u.s. history.
the widespread damage caused by the storm, as well as its
unusual merging with a frontal system, resulted in its being
nicknamed "superstorm sandy"
by media outlets and u.s. government agencies. sandy was a
category 3 storm when it made
landfall in cuba at 05:25 utc on
25 october. after sandy passed
across cuba, the storm weakened
and turned to the north-northwest,
toward the bahamas, eventually
reintensifying into a hurricane
with a redeveloped eye.
when moving north, atlantic
hurricanes typically move in a
northeasterly direction and thus
away from the coast, due to the
jet stream's prevailing westerly
winds. in late october of 2012,
however, the polar jet stream
dipped sharply into the eastern
united states, giving rise to a
midlatitude trough of low presfigure 1. Electric power infrastructure damage associated with Superstorm Sandy.
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