Power outage history
Barnes County North Dakota
6.9hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
7th most of 13 in North Dakota close to 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 Barnes'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 22 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Barnes, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 25, 2023 | Ice storm | 2,040 | 27% | 9.9 d | 7.2 d | 207k |
| Jun 20, 2025 | Tornadoes | 2,952 | 38% | 4.9 d | 3.7 d | 112k |
| Dec 25, 2016 | Winter storm | 821 | 11% | 29 h | 6.8 h | 12k |
| Feb 3, 2021 | No storm report | 1,113 | 14% | 5.2 h | 48 min | 3.6k |
| Aug 8, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 318 | 4% | 11 h | – | 2.4k |
| Jun 17, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 508 | 7% | 4.5 h | 2.5 h | 2.0k |
| Apr 5, 2022 | No storm report | 373 | 5% | 5.0 h | – | 1.8k |
| Jun 7, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 408 | 5% | 6.8 h | 8.0 h | 1.4k |
| Sep 16, 2022 | No storm report | 537 | 7% | 2.8 h | 1.8 h | 1.4k |
| Apr 30, 2023 | No storm report | 257 | 3% | 4.5 h | – | 1.1k |
| Sep 23, 2016 | No storm report | 880 | 11% | 1.8 h | 1.0 h | 1.1k |
| Jul 4, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 206 | 3% | 5.5 h | – | 888 |
| Oct 14, 2024 | No storm report | 240 | 3% | 3.5 h | – | 840 |
| Sep 27, 2022 | No storm report | 472 | 6% | 2.2 h | 3.8 h | 786 |
| Sep 2, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 296 | 4% | 4.0 h | – | 777 |
| Apr 29, 2023 | No storm report | 244 | 3% | 3.2 h | – | 769 |
| Nov 17, 2021 | No storm report | 1,483 | 19% | 30 min | 30 min | 742 |
| Jul 10, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 326 | 4% | 2.2 h | – | 734 |
| Sep 19, 2022 | No storm report | 536 | 7% | 1.5 h | 1.5 h | 710 |
| Aug 28, 2019 | No storm report | 185 | 2% | 3.5 h | – | 648 |
| Apr 25, 2024 | No storm report | 199 | 3% | 4.5 h | – | 630 |
| May 13, 2020 | No storm report | 363 | 5% | 5.2 h | – | 590 |
| Oct 5, 2022 | No storm report | 258 | 3% | 2.2 h | – | 580 |
| Jul 11, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 212 | 3% | 4.0 h | – | 536 |
| Aug 20, 2025 | No storm report | 238 | 3% | 3.2 h | – | 515 |
| Jun 1, 2017 | No storm report | 343 | 4% | 1.5 h | – | 514 |
| Aug 17, 2025 | No storm report | 319 | 4% | 1.5 h | – | 441 |
| Jun 7, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 509 | 7% | 1.5 h | 48 min | 426 |
| Jul 17, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 141 | 2% | 3.0 h | – | 420 |
| Aug 9, 2020 | Tornadoes | 393 | 5% | 1.0 h | 12 h | 393 |
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 Barnes from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Ice storm 59%
- Tornadoes 32%
- No storm on record 5.9%
- Thunderstorms 2.5%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Barnes
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole North Dakota territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cass County Elec Coop Inc | Cooperative | 300 | 24 | 0.77 | 12.7 | 53k |
| City of Valley City | ND | – | – | – | 6.6 | 48k |
| Otter Tail Power Co | Investor Owned | 575 | 132 | 2.03 | 11.1 | 45k |
| Nodak Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 321 | 104 | 5.40 | 12.7 | 21k |
| Northern Plains Electric Coop | Cooperative | 371 | 188 | 1.43 | 10.9 | 10k |
| WAPA-- Western Area Power Administration | Federal | – | – | – | – | – |
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 7,694 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 →