Power outage history
Decatur County Kansas
7.8hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
10th most of 81 in Kansas 1.2× 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 Decatur's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2021 was the worst well-recorded year, at 15 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Decatur, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 30, 2017 | Winter storm | 667 | 29% | 6.0 d | 6.0 d | 54k |
| Sep 16, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 420 | 18% | 20 h | 19 h | 5.1k |
| Jul 3, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,420 | 61% | 4.8 h | 4.8 h | 5.0k |
| Dec 15, 2021 | Windstorm | 635 | 27% | 9.0 h | 7.0 h | 3.8k |
| Aug 2, 2019 | No storm report | 657 | 28% | 5.8 h | 5.8 h | 3.7k |
| May 6, 2017 | No storm report | 667 | 29% | 4.0 h | 4.2 h | 2.7k |
| Mar 19, 2025 | Winter storm | 314 | 13% | 11 h | 5.5 h | 2.0k |
| Jan 25, 2019 | No storm report | 659 | 28% | 3.5 h | 2.5 h | 1.8k |
| Mar 13, 2019 | No storm report | 659 | 28% | 2.8 h | 2.8 h | 1.8k |
| Mar 7, 2024 | No storm report | 961 | 41% | 1.8 h | 1.5 h | 1.7k |
| Jun 3, 2016 | No storm report | 662 | 28% | 2.5 h | 2.5 h | 1.7k |
| Oct 5, 2017 | No storm report | 660 | 28% | 2.5 h | 2.5 h | 1.6k |
| Jul 3, 2024 | No storm report | 518 | 22% | 3.5 h | 3.5 h | 1.4k |
| Jul 2, 2020 | No storm report | 168 | 7% | 11 h | 8.8 h | 1.4k |
| Jan 2, 2017 | No storm report | 668 | 29% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 1.3k |
| Feb 19, 2016 | No storm report | 664 | 29% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 1.3k |
| Dec 16, 2021 | No storm report | 268 | 12% | 3.5 h | 2.0 h | 936 |
| Jan 29, 2021 | No storm report | 958 | 41% | 1.5 h | 12 min | 826 |
| Dec 1, 2024 | No storm report | 517 | 22% | 2.2 h | 1.0 h | 824 |
| May 27, 2017 | No storm report | 665 | 29% | 1.2 h | 1.0 h | 685 |
| Dec 25, 2016 | Windstorm | 668 | 29% | 1.0 h | 1.0 h | 668 |
| Aug 9, 2025 | No storm report | 47 | 2% | 20 h | – | 630 |
| Jul 19, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 1,161 | 50% | 2.0 h | 12 min | 607 |
| Sep 16, 2016 | No storm report | 663 | 28% | 48 min | 48 min | 497 |
| Jun 19, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 177 | 8% | 3.0 h | 2.5 h | 471 |
| Jul 19, 2022 | No storm report | 269 | 12% | 1.8 h | 1.2 h | 470 |
| Apr 23, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 371 | 16% | 6.0 h | 6.0 h | 409 |
| Sep 21, 2022 | No storm report | 181 | 8% | 2.2 h | 2.0 h | 405 |
| Apr 14, 2020 | No storm report | 509 | 22% | 1.0 h | 30 min | 401 |
| Jun 7, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 85 | 4% | 4.8 h | – | 392 |
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 Decatur from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 55%
- Thunderstorms 29%
- Windstorm 11%
- Winter storm 5.2%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Decatur
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Kansas territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Midwest Energy Inc | Cooperative | 581 | 314 | 2.68 | 12.0 | 30k |
| Prairie Land Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 383 | 157 | – | 14.8 | 13k |
| City of Oberlin | KS | – | – | – | – | 6.7k |
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
- Decatur (this county) 7.8 h
- Rawlins 7.1 h
- Sheridan 6.0 h
- Norton 3.7 h
- Thomas 1.2 h
- Red Willow, NE 0.3 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 2,329 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 →