Power outage history
Wayne County Michigan
21hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
23rd most of 83 in Michigan 3.1× 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 Wayne's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2023 was the worst well-recorded year, at 2.1 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Wayne, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 22, 2023 | Ice storm | 311,048 | 40% | 7.1 d | 4.2 d | 21M |
| Aug 11, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 265,444 | 34% | 6.5 d | 4.1 d | 19M |
| Jul 20, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 157,013 | 20% | 4.1 d | 3.6 d | 7.8M |
| Apr 15, 2018 | Winter storm | 170,309 | 22% | 3.6 d | 3.1 d | 7.2M |
| Aug 31, 2022 | No storm report | 209,957 | 27% | 2.6 d | 2.2 d | 5.0M |
| Mar 3, 2023 | Winter storm | 138,533 | 18% | 3.1 d | 33 h | 4.8M |
| Jul 26, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 106,173 | 14% | 3.3 d | 2.3 d | 4.3M |
| Aug 24, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 120,526 | 15% | 4.0 d | 2.4 d | 4.2M |
| Jul 19, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 108,397 | 14% | 2.3 d | 45 h | 3.4M |
| May 4, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 76,024 | 10% | 3.0 d | 2.8 d | 2.6M |
| Jun 25, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 44,940 | 6% | 5.6 d | 33 h | 2.6M |
| Dec 11, 2021 | Windstorm | 68,839 | 9% | 2.3 d | 2.1 d | 2.4M |
| Sep 22, 2021 | Flooding | 42,268 | 5% | 3.1 d | 2.4 d | 2.2M |
| Aug 27, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 70,919 | 9% | 2.1 d | 35 h | 1.8M |
| Nov 15, 2020 | Windstorm | 74,847 | 10% | 30 h | 20 h | 1.7M |
| Jun 27, 2015 | No storm report | 61,704 | 8% | 42 h | 41 h | 1.6M |
| Jan 12, 2024 | No storm report | 50,520 | 6% | 2.1 d | 32 h | 1.2M |
| Jul 24, 2021 | Flooding | 28,619 | 4% | 47 h | 38 h | 1.0M |
| Jun 1, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 43,524 | 6% | 32 h | 33 h | 931k |
| Nov 21, 2015 | No storm report | 38,731 | 5% | 2.1 d | 2.3 d | 909k |
| Jul 7, 2021 | No storm report | 24,293 | 3% | 48 h | 2.3 d | 747k |
| Jun 20, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 34,950 | 4% | 40 h | 26 h | 720k |
| Jun 22, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 33,182 | 4% | 26 h | 24 h | 615k |
| Nov 17, 2020 | No storm report | 33,878 | 4% | 36 h | 30 h | 600k |
| Jul 20, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 22,309 | 3% | 31 h | 39 h | 525k |
| Mar 25, 2023 | No storm report | 30,984 | 4% | 26 h | 26 h | 515k |
| Sep 14, 2021 | No storm report | 23,550 | 3% | 29 h | 32 h | 510k |
| Aug 6, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 19,109 | 2% | 29 h | 37 h | 437k |
| Mar 1, 2018 | Winter storm | 20,906 | 3% | 24 h | 32 h | 380k |
| Jun 25, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 15,153 | 2% | 28 h | 38 h | 373k |
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 Wayne from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 49%
- Ice storm 20%
- Winter storm 12%
- No storm on record 10%
- Windstorm 4.8%
- Flooding 4.3%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Wayne
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Michigan territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DTE Electric Company | Investor Owned | 192 | 151 | 1.16 | 20.3 | 2.1M |
| Wyandotte Municipal Serv Comm | Municipal | 17 | – | 0.20 | 16.9 | 12k |
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
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 784,626 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 →