Power outage history
Benton County Arkansas
7.0hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
51st most of 73 in Arkansas close to 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 Benton's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2024 was the worst well-recorded year, at 35 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Benton, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 26, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 74,812 | 61% | 7.6 d | 5.6 d | 3.9M |
| Oct 21, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 21,340 | 17% | 3.7 d | 2.5 d | 673k |
| Aug 26, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 24,732 | 20% | 43 h | 1.2 h | 227k |
| Aug 16, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 24,235 | 20% | 25 h | 13 h | 104k |
| Apr 26, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 13,723 | 11% | 15 h | 12 h | 56k |
| May 18, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 7,062 | 6% | 16 h | 13 h | 49k |
| Jan 11, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 8,321 | 7% | 11 h | 11 h | 47k |
| Jun 18, 2025 | Tornadoes | 11,192 | 9% | 8.2 h | 5.0 h | 38k |
| Jan 25, 2023 | Winter storm | 3,019 | 2% | 17 h | – | 36k |
| Apr 29, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 16,153 | 13% | 8.5 h | 48 min | 25k |
| Aug 13, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 5,096 | 4% | 7.8 h | 7.8 h | 23k |
| Feb 16, 2021 | No storm report | 3,816 | 3% | 13 h | – | 23k |
| Aug 13, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 6,564 | 5% | 5.5 h | 7.2 h | 23k |
| Oct 30, 2024 | No storm report | 7,673 | 6% | 3.5 h | 48 min | 22k |
| May 4, 2022 | No storm report | 7,374 | 6% | 2.8 h | 2.2 h | 20k |
| Mar 31, 2023 | No storm report | 6,735 | 5% | 8.0 h | 5.8 h | 19k |
| Aug 8, 2024 | No storm report | 4,046 | 3% | 4.5 h | – | 18k |
| Dec 10, 2021 | No storm report | 8,433 | 7% | 4.2 h | 4.2 h | 18k |
| Apr 13, 2022 | Flooding | 10,008 | 8% | 1.8 h | 1.2 h | 17k |
| Jul 14, 2023 | No storm report | 3,849 | 3% | 5.5 h | – | 17k |
| Apr 29, 2017 | Flooding | 3,921 | 3% | 8.2 h | – | 15k |
| Jun 18, 2023 | No storm report | 4,060 | 3% | 4.2 h | – | 14k |
| Jul 20, 2022 | No storm report | 2,537 | 2% | 5.5 h | – | 13k |
| Sep 10, 2020 | No storm report | 12,463 | 10% | 2.5 h | 2.0 h | 12k |
| Jun 29, 2024 | No storm report | 9,758 | 8% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 12k |
| May 2, 2019 | No storm report | 4,348 | 4% | 3.8 h | – | 12k |
| Mar 14, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 2,393 | 2% | 4.8 h | – | 11k |
| Sep 5, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 3,842 | 3% | 4.8 h | – | 10k |
| Oct 29, 2023 | No storm report | 5,341 | 4% | 3.0 h | 12 min | 10k |
| Mar 5, 2025 | No storm report | 14,503 | 12% | 48 min | 30 min | 10k |
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 Benton from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 87%
- No storm on record 11%
- Tornadoes 0.9%
- Winter storm 0.8%
- Flooding 0.7%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Benton
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Arkansas territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwestern Electric Power Co | Investor Owned | 428 | 212 | 1.84 | 12.1 | 110k |
| Carroll Electric Coop Corp | Cooperative | 224 | 142 | 2.43 | 13.4 | 105k |
| Ozarks Electric Coop Corp | Cooperative | 676 | 50 | 1.68 | 13.7 | 74k |
| City of Bentonville | Municipal | – | – | – | 11.8 | 23k |
| City of Siloam Springs | Municipal | 43 | 43 | 0.38 | 11.5 | 9.1k |
| Empire District Electric Co | Investor Owned | 206 | 85 | 0.90 | 13.8 | 4.9k |
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
- Barry, MO 8.3 h
- McDonald, MO 8.2 h
- Delaware, OK 8.1 h
- Carroll 7.2 h
- Madison 7.1 h
- Benton (this county) 7.0 h
- Adair, OK 4.2 h
- Washington 2.5 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 123,593 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 →