Power outage history
McDonald County Missouri
8.2hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
1.3× 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 McDonald'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 17 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
McDonald, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 16, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 5,323 | 45% | 2.6 d | 26 h | 124k |
| Apr 29, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 5,955 | 50% | 2.5 d | 2.1 d | 76k |
| Aug 26, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 1,831 | 15% | 45 h | 30 h | 42k |
| May 26, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 1,693 | 14% | 37 h | 31 h | 24k |
| Nov 11, 2024 | No storm report | 1,445 | 12% | 18 h | 21 h | 12k |
| Sep 8, 2024 | No storm report | 565 | 5% | 22 h | – | 12k |
| May 19, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 1,888 | 16% | 23 h | 5.5 h | 11k |
| May 9, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 791 | 7% | 10 h | 10 h | 7.9k |
| Jun 18, 2025 | No storm report | 1,398 | 12% | 11 h | 5.8 h | 7.7k |
| Apr 5, 2017 | No storm report | 673 | 6% | 13 h | 25 h | 7.1k |
| Aug 12, 2021 | No storm report | 2,707 | 23% | 2.5 h | 2.5 h | 6.8k |
| Jun 23, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 1,926 | 16% | 6.0 h | 6.0 h | 6.6k |
| Jun 18, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 1,266 | 11% | 12 h | 4.0 h | 5.8k |
| Oct 11, 2021 | No storm report | 779 | 7% | 7.5 h | 4.5 h | 5.3k |
| Jun 15, 2017 | No storm report | 411 | 3% | 14 h | – | 5.3k |
| Jun 4, 2025 | No storm report | 522 | 4% | 16 h | – | 5.0k |
| Apr 4, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 2,089 | 18% | 3.5 h | 30 min | 4.7k |
| Jul 31, 2025 | No storm report | 1,135 | 10% | 2.8 h | 2.8 h | 3.1k |
| Jul 22, 2020 | No storm report | 1,267 | 11% | 2.5 h | 2.2 h | 2.9k |
| Nov 3, 2024 | No storm report | 637 | 5% | 5.2 h | 2.5 h | 2.8k |
| Jan 23, 2023 | No storm report | 1,300 | 11% | 3.0 h | 2.8 h | 2.8k |
| Nov 9, 2025 | No storm report | 190 | 2% | 21 h | – | 2.7k |
| Aug 6, 2023 | No storm report | 711 | 6% | 4.5 h | 30 min | 2.5k |
| Jun 26, 2024 | No storm report | 840 | 7% | 6.0 h | 6.2 h | 2.5k |
| Dec 1, 2019 | No storm report | 1,893 | 16% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 2.4k |
| Jul 5, 2025 | No storm report | 179 | 2% | 16 h | – | 2.4k |
| Apr 6, 2017 | No storm report | 317 | 3% | 10 h | – | 2.2k |
| Nov 26, 2019 | No storm report | 1,937 | 16% | 1.2 h | 1.0 h | 2.1k |
| May 22, 2019 | No storm report | 1,250 | 11% | 1.8 h | 1.5 h | 2.0k |
| Apr 29, 2017 | Flooding | 2,013 | 17% | 1.0 h | 1.5 h | 2.0k |
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 McDonald from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 70%
- No storm on record 29%
- Windstorm 0.5%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving McDonald
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empire District Electric Co | Investor Owned | 167 | 110 | 1.10 | 14.8 | 144k |
| Barry Electric Coop | MO | – | – | – | 12.1 | 116k |
| New-Mac Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | – | – | – | 13.4 | 20k |
| Carroll Electric Coop Corp | Cooperative | 129 | 119 | 2.00 | 13.8 | 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
- Barry 8.3 h
- McDonald (this county) 8.2 h
- Delaware, OK 8.1 h
- Benton, AR 7.0 h
- Newton 6.3 h
- Ottawa, OK 3.4 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 11,889 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 →