A10598-Day5-Texas blackouts raise climate warning

The Texas catastrophe has raised climate warnings about unusual weather events. It is not surprising that Texas was not able to deal with the disaster because of its ill-prepared electric-grid for an unprecedented winter storm, such as frozen equipment at power plants and iced natural gas wells. What was worse is that there were several offline power plants and much unhardened electricity infrastructure existing. It is terrible that maybe this kind of extreme weather event will be usual in the future. Some researches indicate that the so-called polar vortex is responsible for the drifting-down freezing air in the lower latitudes. Not winter storms but also heat waves can drive up electricity demand, making the existing electric grid challenging to match. As these climate-linked disasters are increasing, it is time to think in a new way and plan better for our future.