Power outage history
Fairbanks North Star Borough Alaska
7.9hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
5th most of 6 in Alaska 1.2× the national median
Every day since 2015
Eleven years, one night at a time
Each cell is a day. The brighter it is, the larger the share of Fairbanks North Star's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2022 was the worst well-recorded year, at 18 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Fairbanks North Star, hours without power per customer
The record
The biggest outages since 2015
Ranked by customer-hours lost: customers out multiplied by how long they stayed out. Times are local.
| Began | Storm | Peak out | Share | Lasted | 90% restored | Customer-hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 25, 2022 | No storm report | 27,643 | 63% | 2.8 d | 36 h | 421k |
| Dec 26, 2021 | No storm report | 14,188 | 32% | 3.7 d | 43 h | 354k |
| Oct 21, 2024 | Winter storm | 8,406 | 19% | 3.4 d | 2.3 d | 219k |
| Oct 3, 2021 | No storm report | 7,237 | 16% | 31 h | 25 h | 70k |
| Aug 8, 2022 | No storm report | 8,480 | 19% | 20 h | 14 h | 54k |
| Feb 12, 2018 | No storm report | 4,164 | 9% | 32 h | 24 h | 47k |
| Dec 7, 2022 | No storm report | 6,186 | 14% | 32 h | 2.0 h | 36k |
| Jun 8, 2017 | No storm report | 14,915 | 34% | 2.8 h | 30 min | 35k |
| Dec 15, 2022 | No storm report | 7,541 | 17% | 10 h | 5.5 h | 33k |
| Jul 3, 2024 | No storm report | 3,618 | 8% | 13 h | 13 h | 29k |
| Dec 19, 2021 | No storm report | 6,212 | 14% | 11 h | 4.2 h | 28k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | No storm report | 5,801 | 13% | 8.0 h | 1.8 h | 26k |
| Feb 14, 2018 | No storm report | 9,462 | 21% | 9.0 h | 48 min | 24k |
| Feb 14, 2018 | No storm report | 15,777 | 36% | 2.0 h | 1.2 h | 23k |
| Jul 5, 2022 | No storm report | 8,141 | 18% | 2.8 h | 2.5 h | 22k |
| Jan 17, 2018 | No storm report | 4,110 | 9% | 9.8 h | 7.8 h | 21k |
| Jul 21, 2022 | No storm report | 12,783 | 29% | 2.0 h | 1.2 h | 21k |
| Jan 18, 2020 | No storm report | 4,348 | 10% | 8.2 h | 7.2 h | 19k |
| Aug 1, 2020 | No storm report | 4,448 | 10% | 9.0 h | 7.8 h | 18k |
| Aug 23, 2025 | No storm report | 7,344 | 17% | 6.8 h | 4.0 h | 18k |
| Jun 9, 2024 | No storm report | 3,631 | 8% | 7.5 h | 2.0 h | 17k |
| Jun 13, 2017 | No storm report | 14,581 | 33% | 1.8 h | 48 min | 15k |
| Jul 28, 2021 | No storm report | 2,918 | 7% | 5.2 h | 2.8 h | 15k |
| Feb 18, 2018 | No storm report | 5,043 | 11% | 3.0 h | 2.2 h | 15k |
| Aug 12, 2020 | No storm report | 12,274 | 28% | 1.5 h | 48 min | 15k |
| May 16, 2023 | No storm report | 3,915 | 9% | 4.8 h | 2.8 h | 15k |
| Dec 12, 2022 | No storm report | 4,824 | 11% | 6.0 h | 1.8 h | 14k |
| Dec 9, 2022 | No storm report | 2,047 | 5% | 19 h | – | 14k |
| May 11, 2018 | No storm report | 4,307 | 10% | 9.8 h | 30 min | 13k |
| Nov 6, 2020 | No storm report | 3,953 | 9% | 12 h | 12 min | 13k |
After the peak
How fast the lights come back
Each line is one major outage, from its peak. The amber line is the typical path.
When it happens
The outage clock
Customer-hours out by month (rings, January innermost) and local hour, 2018–2025.
What was happening
Weather behind the outages
Each outage is matched to NOAA storm reports for Fairbanks North Star from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 90%
- Winter storm 9.6%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Fairbanks North Star
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Alaska territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Golden Valley Elec Assn Inc | Cooperative | 212 | 212 | 1.96 | 31.5 | 41k |
| G & K, Inc | AK | – | – | – | – | 286 |
EIA Form 861, latest year each utility reported. Outage minutes are SAIDI, the yearly minutes the average customer goes without power; outages a year are SAIFI.
Next door
Neighbouring counties
- Denali 21 h
- Southeast Fairbanks 13 h
- Fairbanks North Star (this county) 7.9 h
About these numbers
Notes
Outages come from the EAGLE-I record of utility outage maps collected every 15 minutes by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Hours without power are customer-hours divided by the county's 44,163 electricity customers. Averages use well-covered years from 2018. Outages shorter than 15 minutes, and utilities that publish no outage map, are not in the record, so these figures understate the total. How every number is made →