Power outage history
Pottawatomie County Kansas
2.3hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
60th most of 81 in Kansas 65% 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 Pottawatomie'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 4.5 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Pottawatomie, 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 15, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 2,974 | 30% | 27 h | 11 h | 27k |
| Apr 30, 2024 | No storm report | 974 | 10% | 13 h | 9.8 h | 7.9k |
| Mar 4, 2025 | Winter storm | 1,867 | 19% | 6.2 h | 3.2 h | 6.6k |
| Jan 10, 2020 | Ice storm | 1,336 | 14% | 17 h | 4.5 h | 5.8k |
| Aug 14, 2024 | Tornadoes | 1,160 | 12% | 6.0 h | 5.5 h | 5.7k |
| Jun 26, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 1,756 | 18% | 6.5 h | 3.8 h | 5.5k |
| Jul 10, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 1,062 | 11% | 11 h | 4.0 h | 3.6k |
| Mar 27, 2025 | No storm report | 1,583 | 16% | 2.2 h | 1.0 h | 3.6k |
| Jun 5, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 1,632 | 17% | 2.2 h | 1.0 h | 3.5k |
| Jul 4, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 820 | 8% | 4.0 h | 1.0 h | 3.2k |
| Aug 30, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 905 | 9% | 6.8 h | 5.5 h | 3.2k |
| Jun 17, 2021 | No storm report | 1,672 | 17% | 1.8 h | 8.2 h | 2.9k |
| May 23, 2015 | No storm report | 257 | 3% | 11 h | – | 2.7k |
| Mar 14, 2025 | No storm report | 1,568 | 16% | 1.8 h | 1.2 h | 2.7k |
| Apr 27, 2024 | No storm report | 962 | 10% | 4.0 h | 1.5 h | 2.3k |
| Sep 16, 2021 | No storm report | 842 | 9% | 2.8 h | 2.8 h | 2.3k |
| Dec 16, 2019 | No storm report | 951 | 10% | 2.5 h | 3.0 h | 2.1k |
| May 27, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 1,417 | 14% | 1.5 h | 1.5 h | 2.1k |
| Oct 13, 2015 | No storm report | 883 | 9% | 2.5 h | 2.2 h | 1.9k |
| Apr 18, 2024 | No storm report | 872 | 9% | 2.5 h | 2.5 h | 1.9k |
| Aug 9, 2023 | No storm report | 511 | 5% | 3.8 h | 3.8 h | 1.9k |
| Jun 19, 2023 | No storm report | 1,006 | 10% | 2.0 h | 1.0 h | 1.8k |
| Mar 24, 2024 | No storm report | 568 | 6% | 3.2 h | 7.5 h | 1.8k |
| Jul 21, 2020 | No storm report | 891 | 9% | 2.0 h | 5.5 h | 1.8k |
| Nov 29, 2015 | No storm report | 538 | 5% | 11 h | 1.2 h | 1.8k |
| May 24, 2016 | No storm report | 870 | 9% | 2.0 h | 30 min | 1.7k |
| May 24, 2022 | No storm report | 606 | 6% | 2.8 h | 3.2 h | 1.7k |
| Jun 11, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 471 | 5% | 6.8 h | – | 1.6k |
| May 19, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 676 | 7% | 2.5 h | 2.0 h | 1.6k |
| Apr 15, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 636 | 7% | 2.2 h | 2.2 h | 1.4k |
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 Pottawatomie from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 51%
- Thunderstorms 36%
- Winter storm 4.7%
- Ice storm 4.1%
- Tornadoes 4.0%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Pottawatomie
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evergy Kansas Central, Inc | Investor Owned | 126 | 80 | 1.17 | 14.6 | 344k |
| Bluestem Electric Coop Inc | KS | – | – | – | 16.6 | 70k |
| Nemaha-Marshall E C A, Inc | KS | 181 | 181 | 1.29 | 14.1 | 38k |
| City of Wamego | KS | – | – | – | 11.8 | 20k |
| FreeState Electric Coop | Cooperative | 335 | 327 | – | 17.8 | 18k |
| City of St Marys | KS | – | – | – | – | 8.8k |
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.
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 9,791 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 →