Climate threat to U.S. infrastructure is accelerating. Here's what's most at risk

Infrastructure was built decades ago and therefore designed for a climate that no longer exists

Sectors with the worst grades from the American Society of Civil Engineers include airports, power and telecommunications infrastructure

Infrastructure to a state of good condition, according to the ASCE

Infrastructure is barely getting a passing grade, and one of the fastest growing blems is climate change

Airports are flooding, bridges are melting from extreme heat, and telecommunications are getting slammed by increasingly extreme weather

In New York City last summer, extreme heat caused metal on a bridge over the Harlem River to expand so much that the bridge got stuck open

Every single category of U

Infrastructure is at growing risk from climate change — a finding by the American Society of Civil Engineers, which trains engineers and informs federal, state and local building codes

ASCE's infrastructure report card gave the nation overall a "C" grade, saying climate-related challenges are widespread, affecting even regions previously resistant to these events. "We continue to see more extreme weather events, so our infrastructure, many times, was not designed for these types of activities," said Tom Smith, ASCE's executive director, adding that it will only get worse. "Whether it's ice, snow, drought, heat, obviously, hurricanes, tornadoes, we have to design for all of that, and we have to anticipate not just where the puck is now, but where we think it's going," Smith said

Sectors with the worst grades include airports, power and telecommunications infrastructure

CNBC asked First Street, a climate risk analytics firm, to overlay its risk modeling on these specific locations nationally

Infrastructure was built decades ago, and therefore designed for a climate that no longer exists

This has a direct impact on investors in the infrastructure space

Sarah Kapnick, formerly chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and now global head of climate advisory at JPMorgan Chase, said her clients are asking more and more the climate impact to their investments. "How should I change and invest in my infrastructure

How should I think differences in my infrastructure, my infrastructure construction

Should I be thinking insurance, different types of insurance

How should I be accessing the capital to do this type of work. " Kapnick said

Both Kapnick and Smith said making infrastructure climate-resilient comes back to the science. "Climate and science is something that we take very, very seriously, working with the science, connecting it with the engineering to tect the public health, safety and welfare," said Smith

But that science is under attack, seeing deep cuts from the Trump administration, which fired hundreds of employees at NOAA, FEMA and the National Institute of Standards and nology — key government agencies that advance climate science. "There's going to be this adjustment period as people figure out where they're going to get the information that they need, because many market decisions or financial decisions are based on certain data sets that people thought would always be there," Kapnick said

The nation's infrastructure also needs funding

Infrastructure to a state of good condition