Power outage history
Deaf Smith County Texas
7.9hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
147th most of 240 in Texas 1.2× 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 Deaf Smith'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 16 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Deaf Smith, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 14, 2025 | Windstorm | 8,647 | 71% | 2.1 d | 14 h | 126k |
| Feb 4, 2021 | No storm report | 1,741 | 14% | 20 h | 5.8 h | 34k |
| Mar 13, 2019 | Windstorm | 1,120 | 9% | 2.3 d | 34 h | 29k |
| Jul 15, 2021 | No storm report | 1,754 | 14% | 14 h | 16 h | 24k |
| Jul 1, 2021 | No storm report | 1,902 | 16% | 14 h | 7.8 h | 23k |
| Oct 27, 2020 | Winter storm | 1,629 | 13% | 16 h | 18 h | 22k |
| Oct 23, 2021 | No storm report | 401 | 3% | 2.0 d | – | 19k |
| Oct 28, 2020 | Winter storm | 4,071 | 34% | 17 h | 12 h | 16k |
| May 13, 2022 | No storm report | 520 | 4% | 2.5 d | – | 13k |
| Feb 16, 2021 | No storm report | 7,399 | 61% | 6.5 h | 2.8 h | 12k |
| Mar 31, 2023 | Windstorm | 4,337 | 36% | 2.0 h | 13 h | 8.7k |
| Jul 3, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 6,860 | 57% | 1.5 h | 1.0 h | 7.7k |
| Feb 4, 2021 | No storm report | 1,741 | 14% | 4.2 h | 3.8 h | 7.0k |
| Aug 13, 2021 | No storm report | 2,161 | 18% | 4.2 h | 30 min | 6.5k |
| Dec 27, 2015 | Winter storm | 1,142 | 9% | 6.2 h | 2.2 h | 6.2k |
| May 1, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,435 | 12% | 7.0 h | 5.2 h | 6.1k |
| May 27, 2023 | Flooding | 602 | 5% | 22 h | – | 6.0k |
| Oct 6, 2022 | No storm report | 3,484 | 29% | 2.2 h | 2.0 h | 5.7k |
| Aug 13, 2021 | No storm report | 1,787 | 15% | 4.2 h | 3.5 h | 5.7k |
| Sep 21, 2024 | No storm report | 1,950 | 16% | 4.0 h | 4.0 h | 5.5k |
| Feb 25, 2023 | No storm report | 518 | 4% | 10 h | – | 5.3k |
| Aug 31, 2019 | No storm report | 3,175 | 26% | 2.2 h | 48 min | 5.3k |
| May 10, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 3,473 | 29% | 5.8 h | 1.8 h | 4.7k |
| Apr 25, 2025 | Tornadoes | 1,256 | 10% | 12 h | 7.8 h | 4.5k |
| Jan 2, 2023 | No storm report | 1,562 | 13% | 2.8 h | 2.5 h | 4.3k |
| Mar 15, 2024 | No storm report | 992 | 8% | 4.2 h | 4.2 h | 4.2k |
| Jun 23, 2025 | No storm report | 977 | 8% | 8.0 h | 3.2 h | 4.1k |
| Dec 19, 2021 | No storm report | 440 | 4% | 25 h | – | 3.9k |
| Mar 17, 2021 | Winter storm | 1,992 | 16% | 8.2 h | 3.8 h | 3.8k |
| Oct 16, 2021 | No storm report | 399 | 3% | 9.5 h | – | 3.7k |
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 Deaf Smith from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 58%
- Windstorm 28%
- Winter storm 7.3%
- Thunderstorms 4.7%
- Flooding 1.0%
- Tornadoes 0.9%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Deaf Smith
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Texas territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwestern Public Service Co | Investor Owned | 441 | 151 | 1.71 | 13.9 | 224k |
| Deaf Smith Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 514 | 338 | 2.39 | 8.6 | 3.0k |
| Farmers Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | – | – | – | – | – |
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.
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 12,107 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 →