Power Out Map
– 0% of Cotton out 0 customers out in Oklahoma

Power outage history

Cotton County Oklahoma

6.5hours

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

43rd most of 75 in Oklahoma close to the national median

Worst outage on record Dec 28, 2015 100% of customers out · 90% back in 46 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 6.5h / yr State average 8.3 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 5.8 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 2hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 2.9days Dec 27, 2015, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 47% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2023 19 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 2,361 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 Cotton'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

2023 was the worst well-recorded year, at 19 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Cotton, hours without power per customer

CottonUS median countyOklahoma average
0 10 20 30 40 34 ’15 24 ’16 26 ’17 4.1 ’18 4.3 ’19 6.3 ’20 3.7 ’21 4.1 ’22 19 ’23 4.2 ’24 6.1 ’25 OK 8.3 US 6.6

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 27, 2015 No storm report 2,361 100% 2.9 d 46 h 63k
May 23, 2016 Thunderstorms 2,361 100% 19 h 18 h 34k
Jun 30, 2017 Thunderstorms 2,361 100% 25 h 14 h 25k
May 18, 2017 Thunderstorms 2,361 100% 33 h 9.5 h 17k
May 25, 2015 No storm report 568 24% 24 h 26 h 13k
Jun 15, 2023 Thunderstorms 1,176 50% 26 h 13 h 11k
Jul 13, 2023 Thunderstorms 751 32% 17 h 13 h 10k
Jun 17, 2023 No storm report 1,291 55% 16 h 6.5 h 6.4k
Feb 26, 2023 Thunderstorms 1,265 54% 5.0 h 3.2 h 5.2k
May 17, 2017 Thunderstorms 1,558 66% 5.5 h 2.8 h 4.2k
May 22, 2017 Thunderstorms 1,164 49% 3.2 h 3.2 h 3.8k
Jun 10, 2022 No storm report 720 31% 10 h 3.5 h 3.6k

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 +14h

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 Cotton from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • No storm on record 53%
  • Thunderstorms 36%
  • Ice storm 3.7%
  • Windstorm 2.6%
  • Heat 2.1%
  • Tornadoes 1.6%
  • Winter storm 0.8%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Cotton

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

Utility Type Outage min / yr Excl. major storms Outages / yr Residential ¢/kWh Customers
Public Service Co of Oklahoma Investor Owned 200 98 1.48 14.2 506k
Cotton Electric Coop, Inc Cooperative 549 238 4.05 12.7 20k
Walters Public Works Authority OK – – – – 13k

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 Oklahoma

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Oklahoma 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 2,361 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 →