Power outage history
McKenzie County North Dakota
1.8hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
72% 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 McKenzie's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2021 was the worst well-recorded year, at 1.8 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
McKenzie, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 10, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 1,264 | 9% | 14 h | 11 h | 11k |
| Jun 8, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 540 | 4% | 14 h | – | 7.3k |
| Apr 23, 2022 | Winter storm | 838 | 6% | 22 h | 3.0 h | 6.7k |
| Jun 10, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 563 | 4% | 14 h | – | 6.3k |
| Sep 27, 2024 | No storm report | 536 | 4% | 5.2 h | – | 2.8k |
| Nov 12, 2022 | No storm report | 555 | 4% | 4.2 h | – | 2.3k |
| Jan 14, 2021 | Windstorm | 1,427 | 10% | 1.8 h | 1.5 h | 2.3k |
| Jun 30, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 528 | 4% | 3.2 h | – | 1.7k |
| Aug 28, 2024 | No storm report | 186 | 1% | 9.5 h | – | 1.6k |
| May 25, 2021 | No storm report | 1,269 | 9% | 1.5 h | 1.5 h | 1.6k |
| Apr 28, 2025 | No storm report | 552 | 4% | 2.0 h | – | 1.1k |
| Apr 3, 2022 | No storm report | 355 | 2% | 2.8 h | – | 933 |
| Mar 20, 2020 | No storm report | 1,501 | 10% | 1.8 h | 1.2 h | 775 |
| Apr 4, 2022 | No storm report | 526 | 4% | 1.8 h | – | 640 |
| Mar 11, 2021 | No storm report | 200 | 1% | 3.0 h | – | 549 |
| Aug 17, 2019 | No storm report | 186 | 1% | 2.5 h | – | 418 |
| Aug 27, 2017 | No storm report | 185 | 1% | 1.8 h | – | 324 |
| Jun 12, 2020 | No storm report | 246 | 2% | 1.2 h | – | 294 |
| May 13, 2020 | No storm report | 188 | 1% | 1.5 h | – | 282 |
| Sep 22, 2022 | No storm report | 530 | 4% | 30 min | – | 265 |
| Jun 30, 2021 | No storm report | 188 | 1% | 1.0 h | – | 188 |
| Jul 1, 2024 | No storm report | 248 | 2% | 1.0 h | – | 148 |
| Apr 15, 2020 | No storm report | 218 | 1% | 30 min | – | 109 |
| Jun 17, 2021 | No storm report | 276 | 2% | 30 min | – | 108 |
| Jun 10, 2021 | No storm report | 186 | 1% | 30 min | – | 93 |
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 McKenzie from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 54%
- No storm on record 28%
- Winter storm 13%
- Windstorm 4.6%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving McKenzie
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montana-Dakota Utilities Co | Investor Owned | 95 | 65 | 0.81 | 11.1 | 80k |
| McKenzie Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 111 | 111 | 0.93 | 8.0 | 5.4k |
| Lower Yellowstone R E A, Inc | Cooperative | 31 | 19 | 0.16 | 8.9 | 680 |
| 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
- Richland, MT 7.8 h
- Williams 3.4 h
- McKenzie (this county) 1.8 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 14,655 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 →