Power outage history
Benewah County Idaho
26hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
3rd most of 35 in Idaho 4.0× 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 Benewah's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2025 was the worst well-recorded year, at 2.7 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Benewah, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 17, 2025 | Windstorm | 4,666 | 100% | 4.6 d | 3.4 d | 232k |
| Nov 17, 2015 | Windstorm | 4,666 | 100% | 3.8 d | 9.2 h | 92k |
| Jan 13, 2021 | Windstorm | 3,090 | 66% | 3.8 d | 2.8 d | 92k |
| Nov 23, 2018 | Winter storm | 4,666 | 100% | 39 h | 18 h | 77k |
| Nov 4, 2022 | Winter storm | 2,430 | 52% | 43 h | 31 h | 44k |
| Oct 23, 2020 | Winter storm | 2,500 | 54% | 2.1 d | 40 h | 37k |
| Sep 11, 2024 | Flooding | 1,647 | 35% | 18 h | 18 h | 30k |
| Dec 23, 2015 | Winter storm | 948 | 20% | 2.9 d | 33 h | 26k |
| Sep 7, 2020 | No storm report | 1,054 | 23% | 5.1 d | 23 h | 20k |
| Sep 25, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 1,827 | 39% | 25 h | 20 h | 19k |
| Mar 27, 2022 | No storm report | 1,527 | 33% | 11 h | 11 h | 17k |
| Oct 2, 2016 | Wildfire | 3,383 | 73% | 5.8 h | 6.0 h | 17k |
| Jun 10, 2018 | No storm report | 3,439 | 74% | 4.2 h | 5.8 h | 15k |
| Aug 23, 2024 | No storm report | 1,634 | 35% | 8.5 h | 9.2 h | 13k |
| Jan 12, 2020 | Winter storm | 1,485 | 32% | 23 h | 7.2 h | 13k |
| May 23, 2021 | No storm report | 1,459 | 31% | 8.5 h | 8.5 h | 12k |
| Aug 19, 2023 | Wildfire | 3,054 | 65% | 4.0 h | 10 h | 12k |
| Jun 2, 2016 | No storm report | 90 | 2% | 6.2 d | – | 12k |
| Jul 29, 2023 | Wildfire | 3,193 | 68% | 3.8 h | 3.8 h | 12k |
| Aug 6, 2017 | No storm report | 3,390 | 73% | 3.2 h | 3.2 h | 11k |
| Nov 15, 2021 | Windstorm | 1,822 | 39% | 16 h | 11 h | 10k |
| Dec 26, 2025 | No storm report | 1,697 | 36% | 6.0 h | 7.0 h | 10k |
| Apr 20, 2019 | No storm report | 1,804 | 39% | 5.5 h | 5.2 h | 9.8k |
| Sep 22, 2023 | Wildfire | 1,689 | 36% | 5.8 h | 5.0 h | 9.7k |
| Sep 8, 2016 | Wildfire | 2,267 | 49% | 6.0 h | 3.8 h | 9.3k |
| May 21, 2023 | No storm report | 1,580 | 34% | 5.8 h | 6.0 h | 9.1k |
| Feb 23, 2025 | No storm report | 1,666 | 36% | 7.5 h | 4.8 h | 8.5k |
| Mar 29, 2021 | No storm report | 1,457 | 31% | 5.8 h | 5.8 h | 8.4k |
| Aug 7, 2025 | No storm report | 1,702 | 36% | 4.5 h | 4.5 h | 7.6k |
| Jun 3, 2024 | No storm report | 1,000 | 21% | 14 h | 2.8 h | 7.3k |
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 Benewah from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Windstorm 36%
- No storm on record 32%
- Winter storm 21%
- Wildfire 4.7%
- Flooding 3.2%
- Thunderstorms 2.2%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Benewah
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Idaho territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avista Corp | Investor Owned | 973 | 208 | 1.89 | 11.8 | 129k |
| Clearwater Power Company | ID | 677 | 677 | 2.74 | 11.7 | 123k |
| Kootenai Electric Cooperative | Cooperative | 369 | 94 | 1.35 | 13.4 | 31k |
| City of Plummer | ID | – | – | – | – | 8.8k |
| Inland Power & Light Company | Cooperative | – | – | – | 9.4 | 2.2k |
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
- Benewah (this county) 26 h
- Shoshone 20 h
- Latah 7.1 h
- Kootenai 3.8 h
- Spokane, WA 3.6 h
- Whitman, WA 2.0 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 4,666 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 →