Power outage history
Cole County Missouri
1.7hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
101st most of 110 in Missouri 74% below 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 Cole's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2019 was the worst well-recorded year, at 5.2 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Cole, 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 22, 2019 | Tornadoes | 13,018 | 33% | 2.5 d | 29 h | 157k |
| Jun 25, 2021 | Flooding | 5,047 | 13% | 6.0 h | 4.8 h | 18k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | No storm report | 1,449 | 4% | 8.8 h | – | 8.8k |
| Apr 3, 2018 | No storm report | 2,187 | 5% | 6.2 h | 1.8 h | 8.2k |
| Jul 19, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 2,715 | 7% | 6.0 h | 3.8 h | 7.8k |
| Dec 25, 2023 | No storm report | 1,305 | 3% | 5.8 h | – | 6.7k |
| Feb 7, 2021 | No storm report | 1,337 | 3% | 5.0 h | – | 6.5k |
| Sep 9, 2016 | No storm report | 907 | 2% | 7.0 h | – | 5.6k |
| Nov 27, 2019 | Windstorm | 2,685 | 7% | 2.8 h | 2.8 h | 5.3k |
| Apr 20, 2025 | No storm report | 2,119 | 5% | 4.0 h | 3.8 h | 4.7k |
| Jul 21, 2019 | No storm report | 2,294 | 6% | 3.0 h | 2.8 h | 4.3k |
| Feb 13, 2022 | No storm report | 2,678 | 7% | 1.5 h | 2.0 h | 3.8k |
| Jan 9, 2022 | No storm report | 2,898 | 7% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 3.6k |
| Dec 18, 2018 | No storm report | 2,068 | 5% | 3.0 h | 2.8 h | 3.5k |
| Aug 2, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 1,032 | 3% | 4.5 h | – | 3.3k |
| May 7, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 1,291 | 3% | 2.8 h | – | 3.2k |
| Jun 21, 2023 | No storm report | 1,774 | 4% | 1.8 h | – | 3.1k |
| Mar 14, 2025 | No storm report | 1,502 | 4% | 4.8 h | – | 3.0k |
| Jul 23, 2020 | No storm report | 1,176 | 3% | 2.5 h | – | 2.9k |
| Mar 14, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 795 | 2% | 4.2 h | – | 2.7k |
| May 5, 2022 | No storm report | 1,348 | 3% | 2.0 h | – | 2.7k |
| Mar 11, 2018 | No storm report | 2,066 | 5% | 1.5 h | 1.0 h | 2.7k |
| May 17, 2022 | No storm report | 1,173 | 3% | 2.2 h | – | 2.6k |
| Apr 1, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 659 | 2% | 5.5 h | – | 2.6k |
| Jan 15, 2019 | No storm report | 1,438 | 4% | 2.8 h | – | 2.5k |
| Jan 12, 2019 | Winter storm | 602 | 2% | 4.8 h | – | 2.4k |
| Oct 11, 2019 | No storm report | 695 | 2% | 3.5 h | – | 2.4k |
| Jun 22, 2024 | No storm report | 987 | 2% | 2.2 h | – | 2.2k |
| May 29, 2023 | No storm report | 1,469 | 4% | 1.5 h | – | 2.2k |
| Nov 4, 2021 | No storm report | 1,032 | 3% | 2.5 h | – | 2.1k |
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 Cole from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tornadoes 45%
- No storm on record 39%
- Thunderstorms 8.1%
- Flooding 5.2%
- Windstorm 1.5%
- Winter storm 1.2%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Cole
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Union Electric Co | Investor Owned | 594 | 119 | 1.18 | 13.3 | 1.1M |
| Co-Mo Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 158 | 69 | 1.08 | 14.9 | 31k |
| Three Rivers Electric Coop | Cooperative | 130 | 104 | 1.04 | 13.0 | 23k |
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 39,963 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 →