US Suffered a Major Power Outage Every Month of 2026 (electrek.co)
(Wednesday July 15, 2026 @11:30PM (BeauHD)
from the would-you-look-at-that dept.)
- Reference: 0184472798
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/07/15/2123238/us-suffered-a-major-power-outage-every-month-of-2026
- Source link: https://electrek.co/2026/07/15/new-normal-the-us-has-suffered-a-major-power-outage-every-month-of-2026/
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Electrek:
> A [1]Reddit post making the rounds this week claims the U.S. has [2]experienced at least one major power outage every month of 2026 -- but is it true? I dug into several outages, the extreme weather behind them, and what we can do to help keep the lights on. [...] The claim that hundreds of thousands of Americans were without power over extended periods at least once per month, every month of 2026 surprised be in two ways. First, because I had no idea if it was true -- and, second, because it felt true. We try to do better than writing about things that feel true around here, however, so I did a bit of research (translation: I Googled power outages by month) and came up with the following examples in about sixty seconds
>
> January: [3]More than 296,000 customers still without power as winter storm freezes much of the US
> February: [4]More than 380,000 customers without power as winter storm hits US Northeast
> March: [5]Storms Cut Power to Over 1 Million Customers in U.S. Midwest, Mid-Atlantic; Ohio Hardest Hit
> April: [6]At least 29 tornadoes touched down in Central Illinois on April 17th
> May: [7]Energy Secretary Issues Emergency Order to Deploy Backup Generation in the Mid-Atlantic Amid Heatwave
> June: [8]More than 373,000 U.S. customers without power due to extreme weather
>
> ... and that list is far from comprehensive, and how you feel about it might depend on what you consider a "major" outage, of course -- but consider that there are tens of thousands of Americans [9]without power right now , and that's not making the news. [...] The lesson here is that weather-related grid outages -- whether they're caused by wildfires, mudslides, derechos, tornadoes, ice storms, hurricanes, heat waves, or some other disaster I'm lucky enough to have forgotten about -- read like statistics when they're happening over there, but get personal real quick when they're happening to you.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/comments/1uk1hkp/the_us_has_had_a_massive_power_outage_every/
[2] https://electrek.co/2026/07/15/new-normal-the-us-has-suffered-a-major-power-outage-every-month-of-2026/
[3] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/more-than-847000-us-customers-without-power-winter-storm-freezes-much-us-2026-01-26/
[4] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/more-than-511000-customers-without-power-winter-storm-hits-northeast-us-2026-02-23/
[5] https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2026-03-13/factbox-storms-cut-power-to-396-000-customers-in-us-midwest-mid-atlantic-ohio-hardest-hit
[6] https://www.foxillinois.com/news/local/at-least-29-tornadoes-touched-down-in-central-illinois-on-april-17th/article_6b0cbf01-f3ec-5e34-be72-0138fe47a0c6.html
[7] https://www.energy.gov/articles/energy-secretary-issues-emergency-order-deploy-backup-generation-mid-atlantic-amid
[8] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/more-than-369000-us-customers-without-power-after-severe-storms-2026-07-06/
[9] https://poweroutage.us/
> A [1]Reddit post making the rounds this week claims the U.S. has [2]experienced at least one major power outage every month of 2026 -- but is it true? I dug into several outages, the extreme weather behind them, and what we can do to help keep the lights on. [...] The claim that hundreds of thousands of Americans were without power over extended periods at least once per month, every month of 2026 surprised be in two ways. First, because I had no idea if it was true -- and, second, because it felt true. We try to do better than writing about things that feel true around here, however, so I did a bit of research (translation: I Googled power outages by month) and came up with the following examples in about sixty seconds
>
> January: [3]More than 296,000 customers still without power as winter storm freezes much of the US
> February: [4]More than 380,000 customers without power as winter storm hits US Northeast
> March: [5]Storms Cut Power to Over 1 Million Customers in U.S. Midwest, Mid-Atlantic; Ohio Hardest Hit
> April: [6]At least 29 tornadoes touched down in Central Illinois on April 17th
> May: [7]Energy Secretary Issues Emergency Order to Deploy Backup Generation in the Mid-Atlantic Amid Heatwave
> June: [8]More than 373,000 U.S. customers without power due to extreme weather
>
> ... and that list is far from comprehensive, and how you feel about it might depend on what you consider a "major" outage, of course -- but consider that there are tens of thousands of Americans [9]without power right now , and that's not making the news. [...] The lesson here is that weather-related grid outages -- whether they're caused by wildfires, mudslides, derechos, tornadoes, ice storms, hurricanes, heat waves, or some other disaster I'm lucky enough to have forgotten about -- read like statistics when they're happening over there, but get personal real quick when they're happening to you.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/comments/1uk1hkp/the_us_has_had_a_massive_power_outage_every/
[2] https://electrek.co/2026/07/15/new-normal-the-us-has-suffered-a-major-power-outage-every-month-of-2026/
[3] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/more-than-847000-us-customers-without-power-winter-storm-freezes-much-us-2026-01-26/
[4] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/more-than-511000-customers-without-power-winter-storm-hits-northeast-us-2026-02-23/
[5] https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2026-03-13/factbox-storms-cut-power-to-396-000-customers-in-us-midwest-mid-atlantic-ohio-hardest-hit
[6] https://www.foxillinois.com/news/local/at-least-29-tornadoes-touched-down-in-central-illinois-on-april-17th/article_6b0cbf01-f3ec-5e34-be72-0138fe47a0c6.html
[7] https://www.energy.gov/articles/energy-secretary-issues-emergency-order-deploy-backup-generation-mid-atlantic-amid
[8] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/more-than-369000-us-customers-without-power-after-severe-storms-2026-07-06/
[9] https://poweroutage.us/
Re: Where are the power outages? (Score:2)
by reanjr ( 588767 )
Right? Pretty sure Europe has experienced more major power outages than the U.S. since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine...
Re: (Score:2)
by jhoegl ( 638955 )
Did you just AC post to reply to it? Sad.
Worthless fucking statistic. (Score:2)
Why is this even being reported? Big countries will have frequent power outages if you add them all up.
Meanwhile, I'm sitting here in the U.S. and haven't experienced a power outage in at least ten years.
Re: (Score:2)
"if it didnt happen to me, I dont know why I should care"
later on r/leopardsatemyface...