Weather-Related Blackouts Doubled Between 2003 and 2012
The number of electrical outages affecting 50,000 or more people for at least an hour doubled during the decade up to 2012, according to Grist. Most of the blackouts were caused by damage to large transmission lines and substations during extreme weather events, a new analysis from nonprofit Climate Central says. Michigan has the most outages, followed by Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The researchers noted the two main drivers of the trend as: