Power outage history
Williams County North Dakota
3.4hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
9th most of 13 in North Dakota 48% 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 Williams's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2022 was the worst well-recorded year, at 13 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Williams, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 23, 2022 | Winter storm | 9,469 | 61% | 3.0 d | 8.2 h | 162k |
| May 29, 2021 | No storm report | 5,395 | 35% | 2.5 h | 1.5 h | 8.4k |
| Aug 20, 2025 | No storm report | 1,924 | 12% | 15 h | 9.8 h | 5.5k |
| Jan 14, 2021 | Windstorm | 1,679 | 11% | 6.0 h | 4.0 h | 5.0k |
| Jun 26, 2025 | No storm report | 1,493 | 10% | 11 h | 11 h | 3.5k |
| Dec 13, 2020 | No storm report | 863 | 6% | 4.2 h | 3.0 h | 3.5k |
| Jul 23, 2025 | No storm report | 1,915 | 12% | 5.0 h | 3.2 h | 3.4k |
| May 12, 2022 | No storm report | 825 | 5% | 4.5 h | 4.8 h | 3.3k |
| Aug 17, 2022 | No storm report | 1,744 | 11% | 4.5 h | 4.5 h | 2.7k |
| Jul 28, 2025 | No storm report | 509 | 3% | 10 h | – | 2.2k |
| Jul 10, 2020 | No storm report | 937 | 6% | 7.8 h | 15 h | 2.1k |
| Jun 28, 2023 | No storm report | 884 | 6% | 5.5 h | 9.5 h | 2.1k |
| Jun 28, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 572 | 4% | 3.5 h | – | 1.8k |
| Apr 28, 2019 | Winter storm | 403 | 3% | 8.0 h | – | 1.7k |
| Jun 10, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 1,009 | 7% | 5.8 h | 5.5 h | 1.7k |
| Oct 10, 2020 | No storm report | 1,103 | 7% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 1.6k |
| Aug 3, 2017 | No storm report | 572 | 4% | 4.0 h | – | 1.5k |
| Jul 27, 2017 | No storm report | 813 | 5% | 2.5 h | 5.5 h | 1.5k |
| Jan 2, 2023 | No storm report | 655 | 4% | 2.2 h | – | 1.5k |
| Aug 12, 2017 | No storm report | 506 | 3% | 3.0 h | – | 1.3k |
| Aug 7, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 835 | 5% | 4.8 h | 6.2 h | 1.3k |
| Jun 30, 2017 | No storm report | 557 | 4% | 2.5 h | – | 1.2k |
| Jul 1, 2024 | No storm report | 704 | 5% | 3.5 h | – | 1.0k |
| Oct 4, 2019 | No storm report | 941 | 6% | 2.2 h | 2.0 h | 962 |
| Nov 22, 2021 | No storm report | 949 | 6% | 1.0 h | 1.0 h | 949 |
| Jan 23, 2024 | No storm report | 841 | 5% | 1.2 h | 1.0 h | 920 |
| Jun 10, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 1,165 | 8% | 2.0 h | 48 min | 909 |
| Oct 30, 2020 | No storm report | 598 | 4% | 2.2 h | – | 864 |
| Sep 16, 2021 | No storm report | 1,147 | 7% | 48 min | 30 min | 852 |
| Jul 7, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 668 | 4% | 1.2 h | – | 831 |
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 Williams from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Winter storm 69%
- No storm on record 25%
- Thunderstorms 3.6%
- Windstorm 2.3%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Williams
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 |
| Mountrail-Williams Elec Coop | Cooperative | 116 | 116 | 1.16 | 7.3 | 11k |
| Sheridan Electric Coop, Inc | MT | – | – | – | 9.1 | 3.1k |
| Burke-Divide Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | – | – | – | 8.6 | 1.8k |
| 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 (this county) 3.4 h
- McKenzie 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 15,516 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 →