Power outage history
Benton County Missouri
12hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
11th most of 110 in Missouri 1.8× 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
2025 was the worst well-recorded year, at 34 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 19, 2025 | Tornadoes | 5,540 | 82% | 3.0 d | 2.7 d | 175k |
| Jun 11, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 2,815 | 42% | 12 h | 9.5 h | 12k |
| Jan 29, 2018 | No storm report | 6,716 | 100% | 2.8 h | 2.0 h | 11k |
| Jul 30, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 2,380 | 35% | 10 h | 1.8 h | 9.7k |
| Jun 24, 2021 | No storm report | 3,542 | 53% | 4.5 h | 3.0 h | 9.5k |
| Sep 24, 2018 | No storm report | 6,716 | 100% | 1.5 h | 1.2 h | 9.3k |
| Jan 1, 2021 | Winter storm | 774 | 12% | 19 h | 7.8 h | 7.8k |
| Jul 1, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 1,784 | 27% | 13 h | 3.2 h | 7.1k |
| May 7, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 2,179 | 32% | 11 h | 5.8 h | 7.0k |
| Jun 14, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 1,654 | 25% | 12 h | 4.2 h | 6.4k |
| Jun 26, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 1,076 | 16% | 9.5 h | 3.2 h | 6.3k |
| Apr 29, 2017 | No storm report | 907 | 14% | 7.8 h | 4.8 h | 6.3k |
| Jan 12, 2019 | Winter storm | 620 | 9% | 28 h | 26 h | 6.2k |
| Feb 23, 2018 | No storm report | 5,493 | 82% | 8.2 h | 1.8 h | 6.1k |
| Jul 1, 2023 | No storm report | 1,742 | 26% | 8.5 h | 1.2 h | 5.5k |
| Sep 5, 2023 | No storm report | 1,917 | 29% | 5.2 h | 3.8 h | 5.5k |
| Jan 1, 2022 | No storm report | 1,248 | 19% | 8.2 h | 5.0 h | 5.4k |
| Aug 11, 2025 | No storm report | 938 | 14% | 7.8 h | 10 h | 5.4k |
| Sep 28, 2018 | No storm report | 963 | 14% | 6.5 h | 3.2 h | 5.3k |
| Jan 4, 2018 | No storm report | 3,914 | 58% | 2.5 h | 48 min | 5.1k |
| Jun 9, 2024 | No storm report | 635 | 9% | 11 h | 5.0 h | 4.6k |
| Feb 24, 2025 | No storm report | 1,016 | 15% | 5.2 h | 7.5 h | 4.1k |
| Sep 23, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 1,480 | 22% | 2.8 h | 2.5 h | 4.1k |
| Apr 16, 2024 | No storm report | 1,648 | 25% | 4.5 h | 48 min | 3.8k |
| Aug 1, 2023 | Flooding | 1,078 | 16% | 9.8 h | 5.5 h | 3.6k |
| Jun 26, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 940 | 14% | 6.5 h | 4.0 h | 3.1k |
| Jan 6, 2022 | No storm report | 774 | 12% | 4.0 h | 6.5 h | 3.1k |
| Jul 7, 2021 | No storm report | 399 | 6% | 9.2 h | 15 h | 3.1k |
| Aug 4, 2022 | Flooding | 1,224 | 18% | 5.8 h | 3.8 h | 3.0k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | No storm report | 1,080 | 16% | 3.8 h | 30 min | 2.8k |
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.
- No storm on record 48%
- Tornadoes 33%
- Thunderstorms 11%
- Winter storm 5.2%
- Flooding 1.6%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Benton
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Missouri territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evergy Missouri West | Investor Owned | 184 | 104 | 1.49 | 12.1 | 309k |
| Sac-Osage Electric Coop Inc | MO | 208 | 205 | – | 12.9 | 133k |
| Southwest Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 356 | 214 | 1.00 | 12.3 | 42k |
| Co-Mo Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 158 | 69 | 1.08 | 14.9 | 31k |
| Osage Valley Elec Coop Assn | Cooperative | 379 | 3 | 0.69 | 14.8 | 17k |
| Central Missouri Elec Coop Inc | Cooperative | 423 | 86 | 1.54 | 12.6 | 11k |
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.
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 6,716 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 →