Power Out Map
– 0% of Butte out 0 customers out in California

Power outage history

Butte County California

38hours

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

10th most of 56 in California 5.8× the national median

Worst outage on record Nov 11, 2018 28% of customers out · 90% back in 36.0 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 38h / yr State average 6.2 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 3.1 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 17hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 37.1days Nov 10, 2018, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 85% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2018 6.4 days without power, average customer
Electricity customers 90,543 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 Butte'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

2018 was the worst well-recorded year, at 6.4 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Butte, hours without power per customer

ButteUS median countyCalifornia average
0 50 100 150 200 ’17 155 ’18 51 ’19 41 ’20 16 ’21 5.6 ’22 12 ’23 19 ’24 6.7 ’25 US 6.6 CA 6.2

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
Nov 10, 2018 Wildfire 25,304 28% 37.1 d 36.0 d 13M
Oct 26, 2019 Windstorm 20,705 23% 4.1 d 2.1 d 1.4M
Sep 7, 2020 Wildfire 17,500 19% 12.0 d 3.4 d 1.2M
Nov 8, 2018 Wildfire 25,696 28% 44 h 25 h 1.0M
Feb 4, 2024 Windstorm 43,533 48% 3.0 d 41 h 797k
Oct 25, 2020 Wildfire 13,911 15% 2.1 d 26 h 548k
Sep 25, 2019 No storm report 34,117 38% 32 h 11 h 530k
Oct 10, 2019 No storm report 22,371 25% 31 h 27 h 504k
Oct 14, 2020 Wildfire 12,553 14% 2.1 d 25 h 472k
Oct 23, 2019 No storm report 21,687 24% 29 h 20 h 472k
Sep 26, 2020 Wildfire 15,254 17% 2.3 d 17 h 406k
Jun 8, 2019 No storm report 25,209 28% 21 h 11 h 401k

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 +24h 90% by +34h

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

  • Wildfire 70%
  • No storm on record 15%
  • Windstorm 11%
  • Winter storm 3.1%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Butte

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

Utility Type Outage min / yr Excl. major storms Outages / yr Residential ¢/kWh Customers
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Investor Owned 273 208 1.63 37.5 5.1M
City of Gridley CA – – – – 15k
City of Biggs CA – – – – 5.1k
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 California

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All California 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 90,543 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 →