Midwest’s Blowout Year of Storms, Power Outages Is a Window into Its Climate-Changed Future; We Must Heed It

   

 The Equation Read More 

Weatherwise, 2026’s warm season has been one for the record books in many parts of the Midwest. A seemingly endless barrage of severe and, at times, deadly thunderstorms and tornados have wreaked havoc on homes and businesses, hundreds of thousands of which experienced power outages as a result.

As climate change is projected to increase severe thunderstorm activity across much of the Midwest, the power sector should heed this year’s pummeling as a wake-up call and reflect on whether it’s ready to withstand more of the same. This year offers an opportunity to imagine more concretely into a climate changed-world, to consider where system vulnerabilities lie, and where investments are needed to ensure our grid is resilient and able to reliably and equitably provide electricity for homes and businesses across the region. 

Taking stock of this year’s weather extremes in the Midwest is personal for me. And not to bury the lede: my family is fine, but we just barely avoided landing in the crosshairs of some of the most dangerous storms that have hit my home state of Wisconsin.

In mid-June, my husband and daughter were hunkered down in a barn in Belleville, Wisconsin, waiting out a severe thunderstorm that produced a tornado down the road. The storm destroyed two homes and severely damaged several more in Belleville. 

On another occasion, my daughter spent her last hour of the school year sheltered in place in her school’s basement as a severe thunderstorm roared through the area, producing 80+ MPH wind gusts. It was such a strong storm that it was eventually classified as a derecho— a particularly extreme class of severe thunderstorms. 

Looking out from the personal to the broader pattern, this has been an astounding year for Wisconsin. This April was the most tornadic on record in 76 years, with 27 tornados touching down across the state versus the more typical single April tornado. May was a relatively calm month, but there were 58 percent more severe storms in June than average. 

Wisconsin is certainly not alone. Most states in the Midwest had above average tornado counts in April. However, Illinois has been the hardest hit, experiencing the most tornados of any state in the US this year. Illinois has already seen 212 tornadoes form—more than three times its annual average of the last thirty years. To date, the National Weather Service has issued a whopping 812 severe thunderstorm warnings in Illinois.

State	NWS Severe Thunderstorm Warnings	NWS 30-Year Average Severe Thunderstorm Warnings (1996-2025)	Tornados That Formed	30-Year Average Tornado Counts (1996-2025)
Illinois	812	608	212	64
Wisconsin	474	347	46	25
Michigan	331	361	26	14

The deadly and damaging severe storms that have hit the Midwest this year have been incredibly consequential for power outages, and things are not slowing down yet. On Independence Day weekend, deadly, climate change-driven extreme heat and severe thunderstorms drove prolonged power outages for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across the Midwest, leaving many in dangerous, hot conditions. 

Nearly two million homes and businesses lost power as a result of a series of severe thunderstorms that hit the Midwest and Ohio Valley in mid-June, according to an analysis by PowerOutage.us. Thousands of homes and businesses lost their power for multiple days on end as a result of the storms, including in my hometown of Madison, where the storms downed power lines and broke power poles. Check out this incredible simulation of the power outages caused by some of the severe thunderstorms rolling through on June 10. 

Unfortunately, this year is unlikely to be an anomaly with respect to severe storms causing power outages in the Midwest. Important aspects of severe thunderstorm activity are already strengthening as a result of human-caused climate change. 

In addition, warmer temperatures—and with them, thunderstorms—are expected to occur earlier in the Midwest as they did this spring, lengthening the timeframe within which severe thunderstorms can form. And climate change is forecast to increase the likelihood of extreme heat that can co-occur with severe storms and strain the power system as happened on Independence Day weekend, leaving communities in harm’s way.

It is therefore critical that power sector actors heed the warning that this year is giving them. As my colleagues and I recommend in our report Power After the Storm, detailed climate risk assessments must be carried out to understand what the grid is going to be up against and how risks should be mitigated and addressed. 

We also urge the power sector to transition to electricity grids powered by clean energy so that we can prevent the worst impacts of climate change from manifesting. Finally, we encourage engagement with communities in order that investments and decisions reflect the needs of all customers that our electricity grids are meant to serve. 

By taking lived experiences from this year into account together with advances in climate science, we can make our electricity grid more resilient and ready to handle the more extreme weather that is headed our way.

The author would like to thank the Wisconsin State Climatology Office for their assistance with some of the statistics used in this blog.