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Weathering ChangePlanning for Future Risk and Resilience | | |
Hello there,
As summer settles in, communities across the country are grappling with several hazards at once: extreme heat, drought, wildfire, severe storms, and the fiscal pressures that follow. These hazards are often discussed separately, but they rarely unfold in isolation. Dry conditions can increase wildfire potential, burned landscapes can intensify flood risk, and heat can strain health systems, ecosystems, infrastructure, and public budgets.
In this edition of Weathering Change, we look at how states are putting future disaster risk into financial terms, why drought is more than a water story, and how extreme heat and severe weather are showing up in public budgets. We also highlight new research and tools on wildfire behavior, urban trees, drought assessment, transportation resilience, and national coordination.
We hope you find this July edition useful, and, as always, please let us know if you’re working on something innovative that we should highlight in a future newsletter. | | |
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How 3 States Are Investing in a More Resilient Future |
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As floods, droughts, wildfires, and other hazards create growing costs for states, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Rhode Island are taking steps to better understand future risk—and plan how to pay for resilience over the long term.
This practical approach helps support:
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Clearer understanding of future costs. Minnesota’s climate adaptation cost study found that, without additional investments, annual climate-driven costs could rise significantly in the decades ahead—while the cost of investing in resilience would be far lower. |
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More strategic spending decisions. Massachusetts and Rhode Island are using finance strategies, vulnerability assessments, metrics, and prioritization frameworks to help determine which investments can reduce risk, protect key assets, and meet community needs. |
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Longer-term funding and financing tools. Some states are looking beyond one-time grants, including revolving loan funds and other financing approaches that can help communities advance resilience projects at a larger and more sustained scale. | |
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As communities grapple with changing weather patterns, many are turning to nature-based solutions—such as greenways, river buffers, and wetlands.
In a recent video from The Pew Charitable Trusts, Mike Wharton, of the Athens-Clarke County Sustainability Office, explained how these approaches work with natural systems to manage flooding, reduce urban heat, improve water quality, and create inviting public spaces. |
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Severe Weather Poses Fiscal Risks to States and Localities |
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Severe weather is creating new budget pressures for states and localities—not only through direct response and recovery costs, but also through less visible risks tied to utilities, insurance markets, and changing federal support.
This Pew piece highlights new research on how water and wastewater needs, wildfire liability for power utilities, and government-created insurance programs can create overlapping fiscal challenges that states may need to plan for before costs mount. |
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What Extreme Heat Means for State Budgets |
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Extreme heat is becoming a budget issue for states, with costs showing up in health care, agriculture, infrastructure, emergency response, and essential services.
This Pew piece looks at how states are beginning to measure those risks and plan for them, from heat vulnerability mapping and action plans to studies that estimate response costs, infrastructure damage, and potential revenue impacts. |
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WHAT CAUGHT OUR ATTENTION |
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Extreme Heat Is Muddling Animals’ Brains—and Even Triggering Aggression |
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Scientific American |
Extreme heat affects more than people, infrastructure, and energy systems—it can also disrupt animal behavior, learning, and survival. This piece highlights emerging research on how high temperatures can impair animals’ ability to find food, avoid predators, pollinate plants, and manage social behavior, underscoring that heat risk can ripple through ecosystems in ways that planners may not always see.
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Why Only a Few Wildfires Become Extreme |
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University Corporation for Atmospheric Research |
Hot, dry weather can set the stage for wildfire, but this analysis explains why only a small share of fires become extreme: They need a brief local “window of opportunity” when wind, terrain, dry vegetation, and ignition align. For emergency managers and land managers, the piece points to the value of more fine-scale forecasting that can help identify where a small fire has the greatest chance of spreading rapidly.
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Urban Trees Aren’t Just Nice, Scientists Say—They’re Mandatory |
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Grist |
As cities look for practical ways to manage heat and flooding, researchers are making a case for treating urban forests as essential infrastructure rather than optional amenities. The piece highlights how trees and other urban vegetation can cool neighborhoods, absorb stormwater, improve air quality, and support wildlife—and argues that cities need dedicated funding, equitable planting strategies, community input, and climate-ready species to make those benefits last.
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Study: U.S. Needs New Drought Framework as Droughts Become More Severe and Unpredictable |
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National Academies |
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As droughts become more severe and less predictable, a new National Academies report calls for a revised assessment framework that separates near-term monitoring and emergency response from long-term planning for water, infrastructure, and climate adaptation. The report also points to the need for stronger monitoring systems, better drought-impact data, and methods that account for changing climate baselines—important updates for communities planning around flash drought, aridification, and other evolving risks. | | |
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NEWS YOU CAN USE |
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Bipartisan Bill Would Result in a National Resilience Strategy |
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CONGRESS |
On July 17, the National Coordination on Adaptation and Resilience for Security Act was introduced in the U.S. House by Representatives Scott Peters (D-CA) and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), and in the Senate by Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Chris Coons (D-DE). The bill would establish a chief resilience officer in the White House who is responsible for developing a national resilience strategy.
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Hurricane Center Updates Data Tools for 2026 Hurricane Season |
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National Hurricane Center |
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The National Hurricane Center is implementing several updates to its products for this hurricane season. Measures include changes to the forecast cone to improve communication of risk and expanding the geographic extent of storm surge advisories to include Hawaii. | | |
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When Weathering Change returns in September, we’ll have a clearer picture of how this summer’s heat, drought, wildfire, flooding, and storms have affected communities and budgets. The lessons from those experiences can help inform states’ and localities’ planning and investment before the next season of hazards arrives.
In the meantime, you can read more about Pew’s disaster resilience work here, and don’t hesitate to e-mail us
with any questions, thoughts, or updates you may have.
Best, |
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Mathew Sanders
U.S. Conservation, state resilience policy
The Pew Charitable Trusts
LinkedIn |
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Forbes Tompkins
U.S. Conservation, federal resilience policy
The Pew Charitable Trusts
LinkedIn | | | |
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