Power outage history
Kern County California
4.3hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
43rd most of 56 in California 35% below 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 Kern's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2022 was the worst well-recorded year, at 6.0 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Kern, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 22, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 18,862 | 5% | 39 h | 44 h | 371k |
| Nov 4, 2022 | No storm report | 50,079 | 13% | 10 h | 6.2 h | 333k |
| Feb 5, 2020 | No storm report | 8,377 | 2% | 46 h | 28 h | 222k |
| Feb 4, 2024 | Windstorm | 19,305 | 5% | 13 h | 16 h | 156k |
| Oct 10, 2019 | No storm report | 7,476 | 2% | 28 h | 1.2 h | 113k |
| Oct 12, 2020 | No storm report | 5,433 | 1% | 22 h | 12 h | 109k |
| Jan 8, 2018 | No storm report | 14,286 | 4% | 11 h | 2.2 h | 92k |
| Feb 16, 2019 | No storm report | 11,392 | 3% | 8.5 h | 8.2 h | 70k |
| Apr 10, 2022 | No storm report | 11,537 | 3% | 6.5 h | 2.5 h | 70k |
| Feb 7, 2020 | No storm report | 5,322 | 1% | 14 h | 6.2 h | 67k |
| Jan 8, 2025 | No storm report | 22,162 | 6% | 3.0 h | 2.8 h | 66k |
| Jun 13, 2018 | No storm report | 7,806 | 2% | 11 h | 14 h | 66k |
| Aug 4, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 16,763 | 4% | 4.0 h | 5.2 h | 61k |
| Jun 12, 2022 | Heat | 8,030 | 2% | 8.8 h | 3.5 h | 61k |
| Dec 15, 2018 | No storm report | 5,358 | 1% | 11 h | 10 h | 60k |
| Nov 11, 2024 | Windstorm | 17,775 | 5% | 6.8 h | 7.8 h | 58k |
| Nov 14, 2020 | No storm report | 4,796 | 1% | 12 h | – | 56k |
| Oct 30, 2019 | No storm report | 17,294 | 4% | 12 h | 30 min | 55k |
| Oct 25, 2021 | Windstorm | 9,864 | 3% | 8.8 h | 5.8 h | 47k |
| Dec 22, 2019 | No storm report | 11,036 | 3% | 6.0 h | 2.2 h | 42k |
| Jul 21, 2024 | Heat | 17,179 | 4% | 2.8 h | 4.5 h | 41k |
| Feb 21, 2023 | Windstorm | 11,711 | 3% | 3.8 h | 4.2 h | 38k |
| Jun 2, 2024 | Windstorm | 8,283 | 2% | 5.8 h | 1.0 h | 36k |
| Jul 13, 2021 | No storm report | 8,589 | 2% | 4.5 h | 5.5 h | 36k |
| Sep 11, 2025 | No storm report | 10,803 | 3% | 4.0 h | 3.0 h | 33k |
| Jan 5, 2017 | Flooding | 9,426 | 2% | 4.0 h | 2.5 h | 32k |
| Aug 2, 2025 | No storm report | 5,585 | 1% | 4.8 h | 4.8 h | 27k |
| Jan 1, 2017 | No storm report | 5,660 | 1% | 5.0 h | 3.2 h | 26k |
| Oct 4, 2016 | No storm report | 3,951 | 1% | 8.0 h | – | 26k |
| Nov 19, 2019 | No storm report | 5,300 | 1% | 4.8 h | 12 min | 25k |
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 Kern from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 66%
- Windstorm 13%
- Thunderstorms 13%
- Heat 3.8%
- Flooding 2.1%
- Winter storm 1.3%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Kern
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 |
| Southern California Edison Co | Investor Owned | 545 | 116 | 1.39 | 31.5 | 4.6M |
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
- Inyo 13 h
- Ventura 9.1 h
- San Bernardino 6.8 h
- San Luis Obispo 6.7 h
- Santa Barbara 5.6 h
- Los Angeles 4.5 h
- Kern (this county) 4.3 h
- Tulare 4.2 h
- Kings 2.9 h
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 395,015 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 →