Power Out Map
– 0% of Sanborn out 0 customers out in South Dakota

Power outage history

Sanborn County South Dakota

12hours

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

1.8× the national median

Worst outage on record May 12, 2022 73% of customers out · 90% back in 2.1 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 12h / yr State average 4.8 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 18.7 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 2.2days May 12, 2022, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 45% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2022 23 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 1,463 ORNL customer model · 3 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 Sanborn'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

2022 was the worst well-recorded year, at 23 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Sanborn, hours without power per customer

SanbornUS median countySouth Dakota average
0 10 20 30 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’19 2.6 ’20 ’21 23 ’22 ’23 ’24 10.0 ’25 US 6.6 SD 4.8

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
May 12, 2022 No storm report 1,070 73% 2.2 d 2.1 d 13k
Aug 16, 2025 Thunderstorms 730 50% 12 h 6.0 h 6.2k
Jul 5, 2022 Thunderstorms 1,317 90% 20 h 4.5 h 5.5k
Jul 4, 2022 Flooding 742 51% 3.8 h 3.8 h 2.7k
Jul 3, 2022 Thunderstorms 559 38% 5.8 h 18 h 2.1k
Apr 4, 2023 Ice storm 239 16% 8.8 h 4.8 h 1.6k
Nov 15, 2023 No storm report 682 47% 13 h 1.0 h 1.5k
May 30, 2022 Flooding 211 14% 8.0 h 2.0 h 1.4k
Jul 25, 2023 No storm report 196 13% 6.5 h 6.2 h 1.3k
Sep 12, 2019 Flooding 194 13% 6.8 h 1.5 h 1.3k
Nov 14, 2023 No storm report 197 13% 6.5 h 2.2 h 1.2k
Dec 12, 2021 No storm report 348 24% 4.2 h 4.0 h 1.2k

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 +6h 90% by +6h

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

  • No storm on record 55%
  • Thunderstorms 21%
  • Flooding 17%
  • Winter storm 2.9%
  • Ice storm 2.5%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Sanborn

As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole South 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
Northern States Power Co - Minnesota Investor Owned 160 58 0.88 13.1 94k
NorthWestern Energy Investor Owned 120 82 1.14 13.3 52k
Central Electric Coop, Inc Cooperative – – – 14.7 6.5k
Dakota Energy Coop Inc Cooperative – – – 16.3 3.2k
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

Across South Dakota

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All South Dakota 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 1,463 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 →