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

Power outage history

Sierra County California

145hours

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

1st most of 56 in California 22× the national median

Worst outage on record Mar 4, 2023 100% of customers out · 90% back in 2.9 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 145h / yr State average 6.2 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 22.4 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 5hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 12.8days Dec 31, 2021, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 74% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2019 10.6 days without power, average customer
Electricity customers 2,072 ORNL customer model · 7 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 Sierra'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 10.6 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Sierra, hours without power per customer

SierraUS median countyCalifornia average
0 100 200 300 ’17 ’18 255 ’19 202 ’20 121 ’21 102 ’22 177 ’23 95 ’24 61 ’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
Feb 27, 2023 Winter storm 2,072 100% 11.8 d 2.9 d 279k
Mar 15, 2020 Winter storm 1,701 82% 7.7 d 7.3 d 181k
Oct 26, 2019 Wildfire 1,679 81% 6.0 d 5.9 d 153k
Dec 25, 2021 Winter storm 1,595 77% 5.0 d 2.2 d 99k
Oct 25, 2020 Windstorm 1,509 73% 3.9 d 3.9 d 91k
Sep 7, 2020 Windstorm 1,681 81% 2.8 d 2.4 d 79k
Dec 31, 2021 No storm report 699 34% 12.8 d 2.7 d 77k
Mar 1, 2024 Winter storm 2,072 100% 6.0 d 3.1 d 71k
Feb 26, 2019 Winter storm 1,239 60% 5.6 d 38 h 55k
Oct 10, 2019 Wildfire 1,507 73% 2.0 d 2.0 d 53k
Oct 23, 2019 Wildfire 1,679 81% 47 h 45 h 44k
Nov 26, 2019 Winter storm 1,681 81% 47 h 47 h 42k

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 +32h

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

  • Winter storm 48%
  • No storm on record 26%
  • Wildfire 15%
  • Windstorm 11%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Sierra

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
Plumas-Sierra Rural Elec Coop CA 14,622 – – 18.7 58k
Liberty Utilities Investor Owned 614 435 3.09 27.6 45k

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 2,072 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 →