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

Power outage history

Humboldt County California

30hours

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

13th most of 56 in California 4.6× the national median

Worst outage on record Oct 27, 2019 100% of customers out · 90% back in 39 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 30h / yr State average 6.2 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 3.0 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 25hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 13.4days Feb 22, 2023, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 39% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2019 3.1 days without power, average customer
Electricity customers 59,962 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 Humboldt'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

2019 was the worst well-recorded year, at 3.1 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Humboldt, hours without power per customer

HumboldtUS median countyCalifornia average
0 20 40 60 80 100 ’17 2.8 ’18 75 ’19 19 ’20 32 ’21 37 ’22 43 ’23 22 ’24 9.0 ’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
Oct 26, 2019 No storm report 59,962 100% 2.1 d 39 h 2.0M
Dec 20, 2022 No storm report 59,962 100% 37 h 28 h 1.2M
Feb 22, 2023 Winter storm 10,069 17% 13.4 d 3.0 d 777k
Nov 26, 2019 No storm report 22,806 38% 4.1 d 2.6 d 756k
Jan 4, 2023 Windstorm 17,785 30% 5.5 d 31 h 745k
Jan 16, 2020 Winter storm 59,962 100% 4.3 d 7.5 h 633k
Feb 10, 2019 Winter storm 10,736 18% 4.3 d 48 min 497k
Jan 26, 2021 Winter storm 11,724 20% 3.1 d 2.3 d 466k
Dec 26, 2021 Winter storm 7,791 13% 4.5 d 2.1 d 451k
Oct 9, 2019 No storm report 59,962 100% 10 h 19 h 348k
Nov 19, 2024 Windstorm 9,903 17% 3.1 d 45 h 243k
Oct 9, 2019 No storm report 59,962 100% 11 h 3.5 h 162k

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 +20h 90% by +46h

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

  • No storm on record 61%
  • Winter storm 26%
  • Windstorm 13%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Humboldt

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
Shelter Cove Resort Improvement Dist No. 1 Political Subdivision – – – 35.2 595

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 59,962 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 →