Water is wet. Texas Ranks Last in US for Power Outages | Dallas Observer Texas Leads Country in Weather-Related Power Outages, Study Finds Texas' 210 weather-related power outages resulted from severe weather, hurricanes, winter storms and extreme heat. By Emma Ruby July 22, 2024 Climate Central, a nonprofit research group that studies climate change and its impacts, recently determined that when it comes to states managing to keep the lights on during extreme weather events, Texas comes in dead last. Between the years 2000 and 2023, Texas reported 210 weather-related power outages, outpacing runner-up Michigan by 53. Fifth-place Ohio recorded only 88 outages in the same time period. And because the study stopped in 2023, Texas' tally doesn’t even include the May 28 or Hurricane Beryl outages. “Many types of extreme weather are becoming more frequent or intense because of human-caused climate change. These events put stress on aging energy infrastructure and are among the leading causes of major power outages in the U.S.,” the study states. “The nation’s electrical grid wasn't built for the present-day climate.” The study found that of all major power outages — outages affecting at least 50,000 customers — across the U.S. in the first two decades of the 2000s, 80% were caused by extreme weather events. Over half of those outages are caused by severe storms, a fifth are caused by winter weather and 14% are attributed to hurricanes. According to data by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Texas also leads the country in the billions of dollars spent on weather and climate disasters. Between the years 2000 and 2023, extreme weather has caused over $370 billion in damage across the state. Hurricanes are by far the most costly weather event Texas faces, with severe storms taking second place.
