A method for operating a wind turbine, the method comprising: determining one or more loading and travel metrics or functions thereof for one or more components of the wind turbine during operation of the wind turbine ; generating, at least in part, at least one distribution of cumulative loading data for the one or more components using the one or more loading and travel metrics during operation of the wind turbine ; applying a life model of the one or more components to the at least one distribution of cumulative loading data to determine an actual damage accumulation for the one or more components of the wind turbine to date ; and implementing a corrective action for the wind turbine based on the damage accumulation , characterized in that the generating comprises: defining a range and bin regions of at least one cumulative load histogram; defining a first loading metric of the plurality of loading metrics and a first travel metric of the plurality of travel metrics for the at least one cumulative load histogram; during operation of the wind turbine, populating the at least one cumulative load histogram using the first loading and travel metrics by adding the first loading and travel metrics to the bin regions of the at least one cumulative load histogram; and adaptively changing at least one of the range or the bin regions based on on-going operational data of the wind turbine. determining one or more loading and travel metrics or functions thereof for one or more components of the wind turbine during operation of the wind turbine ; generating, at least in part, at least one distribution of cumulative loading data for the one or more components using the one or more loading and travel metrics during operation of the wind turbine ; applying a life model of the one or more components to the at least one distribution of cumulative loading data to determine an actual damage accumulation for the one or more components of the wind turbine to date ; and implementing a corrective action for the wind turbine based on the damage accumulation , characterized in that the generating comprises: defining a range and bin regions of at least one cumulative load histogram; defining a first loading metric of the plurality of loading metrics and a first travel metric of the plurality of travel metrics for the at least one cumulative load histogram; during operation of the wind turbine, populating the at least one cumulative load histogram using the first loading and travel metrics by adding the first loading and travel metrics to the bin regions of the at least one cumulative load histogram; and adaptively changing at least one of the range or the bin regions based on on-going operational data of the wind turbine. defining a range and bin regions of at least one cumulative load histogram; defining a first loading metric of the plurality of loading metrics and a first travel metric of the plurality of travel metrics for the at least one cumulative load histogram; during operation of the wind turbine, populating the at least one cumulative load histogram using the first loading and travel metrics by adding the first loading and travel metrics to the bin regions of the at least one cumulative load histogram; and adaptively changing at least one of the range or the bin regions based on on-going operational data of the wind turbine. <EOS>