Power outage history
Van Buren County Michigan
25hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
17th most of 83 in Michigan 3.9× 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 Van Buren'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 43 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Van Buren, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 15, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 19,203 | 79% | 3.3 d | 2.4 d | 585k |
| Feb 22, 2023 | Ice storm | 13,195 | 54% | 5.0 d | 4.4 d | 581k |
| Jun 26, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 11,221 | 46% | 2.7 d | 43 h | 284k |
| Mar 30, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 10,849 | 45% | 3.1 d | 45 h | 260k |
| Jun 13, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 8,987 | 37% | 2.8 d | 41 h | 198k |
| Aug 10, 2021 | No storm report | 10,179 | 42% | 2.6 d | 14 h | 173k |
| Aug 3, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 6,608 | 27% | 41 h | 32 h | 115k |
| Aug 29, 2022 | No storm report | 6,288 | 26% | 2.4 d | 5.5 h | 97k |
| Aug 10, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 5,025 | 21% | 48 h | 42 h | 95k |
| Jun 20, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 7,917 | 33% | 34 h | 15 h | 88k |
| Jun 16, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 4,420 | 18% | 42 h | 34 h | 84k |
| Nov 5, 2022 | No storm report | 3,780 | 16% | 37 h | 15 h | 83k |
| Mar 8, 2017 | Windstorm | 6,365 | 26% | 2.1 d | 5.0 h | 68k |
| Jun 9, 2020 | No storm report | 2,334 | 10% | 2.1 d | 20 h | 68k |
| Feb 24, 2019 | Windstorm | 3,619 | 15% | 35 h | 24 h | 64k |
| Oct 20, 2018 | No storm report | 3,567 | 15% | 2.2 d | 46 h | 62k |
| Jul 23, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 2,492 | 10% | 33 h | 15 h | 62k |
| Nov 27, 2019 | No storm report | 6,070 | 25% | 30 h | 16 h | 61k |
| Dec 11, 2021 | Windstorm | 5,826 | 24% | 39 h | 28 h | 54k |
| Nov 13, 2021 | No storm report | 3,502 | 14% | 22 h | 13 h | 46k |
| Feb 7, 2019 | No storm report | 4,016 | 17% | 45 h | 21 h | 44k |
| Oct 11, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 2,722 | 11% | 26 h | 19 h | 39k |
| Sep 7, 2021 | No storm report | 3,644 | 15% | 34 h | 23 h | 38k |
| Jun 25, 2024 | No storm report | 4,511 | 19% | 14 h | 13 h | 38k |
| Jun 5, 2021 | No storm report | 4,184 | 17% | 9.5 h | 8.5 h | 37k |
| Nov 15, 2020 | No storm report | 3,521 | 14% | 31 h | 24 h | 36k |
| May 30, 2015 | No storm report | 2,936 | 12% | 12 h | 2.8 h | 31k |
| May 17, 2015 | No storm report | 7,024 | 29% | 6.0 h | 3.5 h | 30k |
| Dec 28, 2015 | No storm report | 1,598 | 7% | 41 h | 36 h | 29k |
| Feb 22, 2020 | No storm report | 3,425 | 14% | 8.5 h | 3.2 h | 28k |
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 Van Buren from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 43%
- No storm on record 39%
- Ice storm 13%
- Windstorm 3.1%
- Winter storm 1.1%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Van Buren
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Michigan territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consumers Energy Co | Investor Owned | 820 | 164 | 1.40 | 20.7 | 1.7M |
| Indiana Michigan Power Co | Investor Owned | 932 | 142 | 1.83 | 17.2 | 113k |
| City of South Haven | MI | – | – | – | 14.8 | 49k |
| Midwest Energy Cooperative | Cooperative | 1,012 | 268 | 2.10 | 19.5 | 29k |
| Village of Paw Paw | MI | – | – | – | – | 9.7k |
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
- Van Buren (this county) 25 h
- St. Joseph 22 h
- Kalamazoo 16 h
- Cass 13 h
- Berrien 11 h
- Allegan 9.4 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 24,276 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 →