Weather Impacts: The Good and the Bad

Abstract

SCIENTISTS WHO have studied how weather impacts our economy have learned that almost any extreme event produces some financial losers and some winners (Changnon 2003a). Furthermore, financial impacts come in two classes. Some impacts are labeled direct. For railroading, these include physical damages to infrastructure, delayed trains, and rerouting of trains. Other weather effects are classed as indirect—they cause more or less traffic and alter a railroad’s income. For example, a drought does not directly affect the rail facilities or halt train movements. If it is severe and lasts long enough to reduce crop yields for a year or more, however, a drought decreases the number of trains hauling grain to market and reduces the income of railroads that rely on hauling grain (see Figs. 2.1, 2.2a, and 2.2b).