Weathering Storm Fern and Hardening the Grid: What US CEOs Said About Climate Risk in Q1

💡Apologies for the late running of this week’s in-depth newsletter. I was soaking up all the latest from the adaptation community at ClimateTech Connect. It was wonderful to spend time with so many subscribers and members — I look forward to next year!

Louie Woodall
Editor

Corporate America spent the first quarter of 2026 reckoning with a historic “Snowmageddon” — Winter Storm Fern.

This four-day calamity subjected much of the continent to sub-zero temperatures and dumped record snowfalls on cities across multiple states. The human cost was brutal: Fern claimed over 170 lives — the highest toll for such an event since Winter Storm Uri in 2021.

The economic and financial costs were substantial too, if less immediately visible. In the weeks and months following, public company earnings calls have steadily revealed the business interruptions and operational challenges the blizzard brought on.

These are covered in this latest edition of Climate Proof’s quarterly Climate Risk Signals analysis — where we investigate earnings call transcripts for clues on the material climate risks faced by US firms, and the adaptation actions taken to meet them.

Our findings show that from January to March, 124 companies in the S&P 500 referenced climate impacts or adaptation actions across 11 sectors. Discussions ranged from the start-of-year storm to legacy impacts from the 2025 California wildfires and rising water scarcity concerns.

The analysis also reveals how some companies are investing aggressively in resilience — particularly utilities, which are under pressure to expand and secure power networks for America’s AI build out in areas exposed to ever worsening climate shocks.