Power Out Map
– 0% of Lincoln out 0 customers out in Montana

Power outage history

Lincoln County Montana

14hours

without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025

5th most of 35 in Montana 2.1× the national median

Worst outage on record Dec 17, 2025 55% of customers out · 90% back in 3.9 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 14h / yr State average 4.9 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 3.9 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 3hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 5.8days Dec 17, 2025, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 61% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2025 37 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 12,721 ORNL customer model · 8 well-covered years

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 Lincoln's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.

20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
0%100% of customers out

Year by year

Hours in the dark, per customer

2025 was the worst well-recorded year, at 37 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Lincoln, hours without power per customer

LincolnUS median countyMontana average
0 10 20 30 40 50 2.2 ’15 3.0 ’16 6.9 ’17 5.8 ’18 6.8 ’19 11 ’20 22 ’21 6.7 ’22 3.3 ’23 18 ’24 37 ’25 US 6.6 MT 4.9

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
Dec 17, 2025 Windstorm 6,953 55% 5.8 d 3.9 d 398k
Sep 25, 2024 No storm report 8,585 67% 29 h 5.0 h 147k
Jan 13, 2021 Windstorm 4,132 32% 3.5 d 2.8 d 143k
Nov 15, 2021 Windstorm 4,523 36% 2.8 d 34 h 105k
Feb 1, 2020 Windstorm 4,170 33% 33 h 26 h 58k
Jul 24, 2019 No storm report 7,237 57% 19 h 3.0 h 51k
May 30, 2020 No storm report 2,700 21% 24 h 12 h 22k
Nov 17, 2015 Windstorm 1,561 12% 42 h 14 h 20k
Sep 7, 2020 Windstorm 1,678 13% 20 h 17 h 18k
Dec 19, 2017 Winter storm 1,717 14% 32 h 4.2 h 18k
Dec 15, 2025 Windstorm 1,813 14% 20 h 12 h 17k
Oct 17, 2017 Windstorm 1,988 16% 14 h 12 h 16k

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.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100% peak+24h+48h+72h+96h half back by +8h 90% by +12h

When it happens

The outage clock

Customer-hours out by month (rings, January innermost) and local hour, 2018–2025.

00061218 Jan inside

What was happening

Weather behind the outages

Each outage is matched to NOAA storm reports for Lincoln from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • Windstorm 57%
  • No storm on record 39%
  • Winter storm 3.1%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Lincoln

As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Montana territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.

Utility Type Outage min / yr Excl. major storms Outages / yr Residential ¢/kWh Customers
Lincoln Electric Coop, Inc MT 431 80 – 10.0 85k
Flathead Electric Coop Inc Cooperative 886 174 2.29 10.0 64k
City of Troy MT – – – – 11k
Northern Lights, Inc Cooperative 223 88 – 13.1 4.7k

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

Across Montana

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Montana 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 12,721 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 →