DALLAS — It may not surprise the millions of Texans who lost power during the 2021 winter storm, but Texas reported the most weather-related power outages in the country from 2000-2023, according to a new report from Climate Central.
Texas reported 210 major weather-related power outages during that time, followed by Michigan with 157, California with 145, North Carolina with 111 and Ohio with 88, according to the study.
The study by Climate Central a nonprofit research group that studies climate change analyzed power outage data between 2000 and 2023 as reported by utility companies. The study defines major outages as power outage events that affect at least 50,000 customers or interrupt service of 300 megawatts or more.
“Many types of extreme weather are becoming more frequent or intense because of human-caused climate change,” the study reads. “These events put stress on aging infrastructure and are among the leading causes of major power outages in the U.S.”
The study didn’t include recent major power outage events in Texas, including Hurricane Beryl, which left millions without power for days in the Houston area with officials blaming the outages for at least 15 deaths, or outages from May storms in North Texas. At the peak of the outages from the May 28 storm in North Texas, Oncor says more than 650,000 were without power. Oncor has called that storm the second-worst in the company’s 112-year history and the top-damaging storm to hit Dallas County.
The study found that of all major power outages reported across the U.S., 80% (1,755) were related to weather events. Severe weather, including high winds, rain and thunderstorms caused 58% of weather-related outages (1,011 events) between 2000 and 2023, winter weather caused about 23% (398), tropical cyclones, including hurricanes, caused about 14% (249 events) and extreme heat was responsible for about 3% of weather-related outages (48), and wildfires accounted for about 2% (or 39), according to the study.
While extreme heat only accounted for about 3% of weather-related outages during the time period analyzed, a recent study shows extreme heat has coincided with power outages in every region of the U.S. from 2012 to 2021.
The U.S. also experienced about twice the amount of weather-related power outages during the last 10 years (from 2014 to 2023) than from 2000 to 2009.
Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Texas also leads the country in billions of dollars spent on weather and climate disasters. Extreme weather caused more than $370 billion in damage across Texas between 2000 and 2023, according to NOAA. Hurricanes were the costliest extreme weather event for Texas during that time period, causing between $200 billion and $300 billion in damage, followed by severe storms, which caused between $50 billion and $100 billion in damage during that time period.
