The United States has experienced 74% more storm-related power outages in the last 10 years than the decade before, as extreme weather increasingly strains electrical infrastructure.

Over the last 20 years, high winds, rains, winter storms, and tropical cyclones including hurricanes accounted for 80% of all power interruptions, concludes a new report by Climate.

“We’re seeing that the warming is having a direct impact on severe weather,” report author Jen Brady, a senior data analyst at Climate Central, told the Guardian. “The conditions that our infrastructure was built to handle are much different [now] than what they were.”

As climate change alters weather patterns across the globe, it is leading to more frequent and intense extreme weather events. Though weather has always affected grid infrastructure, its increasing severity is pushing that infrastructure beyond its limits.

“As not only the intensity of weather events continues to increase, but also the stress on the system from things like increased cooling demand, it is likely that weather-related power outages will continue to increase as well across the country,” Brady told Axios.

Climate Central analyzed major U.S. power outages—defined as those that affect 50,000 or more customers, or interrupt service of 300 megawatts or greater—between 2000 and 2023. Out of 2,187 outages over that time, 1,755 (80%) were due to weather. Some 58% of those outages were due to severe weather like high winds, rain, and thunderstorms, with another 23% were linked to winter storms and 14% to tropical cyclones, including hurricanes. Other weather-related outages were attributed to wildfires (2%) and extreme heat (3%).

There were 74% more such outages between 2014 and 2023 than in the first 10 years of the dataset, from 2000 to 2009.

Some areas were harder hit than others, with the U.S. Southeast (360), South (352), Northeast (350), and Ohio Valley (301) regions experiencing more weather-related outages than others. The demographics mattered, as well, with low-income communities of colour and rural residents hit especially hard. In the event of an outage, those groups experienced longer, more frequent service disruptions.

“They face a larger barrier due to less access to either traditional electricity or backup generation,” said Sarika Khushalani-Solanki, a West Virginia University professor who researches energy transmission systems.

Outages are more than just an inconvenience—they can have dangerous consequences when vital resources like clean water, heating and cooling, and medical necessities are cut off. At least 246 people died when millions across Texas lost power during winter storm Uri and the grid was brought within “seconds and minutes” of months-long blackouts in 2021. Later estimates put the death toll as high as 700.

To upgrade electrical infrastructure for resilience and reliability amid extreme weather, access to microgrids and smart grid technologies must be improved, writes Climate Central.

“They are a possible solution for these disastrous situations,” Khushalani-Solanki said. If “you no longer have these large transmission lines delivering the power, you can generate power locally and suffice it within a community.”

Physically “hardening” the grid to better withstand weather conditions is also important, Climate Central says.