Power outage history
Washtenaw County Michigan
16hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
32nd most of 83 in Michigan 2.5× 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 Washtenaw's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2023 was the worst well-recorded year, at 2.4 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Washtenaw, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 22, 2023 | Ice storm | 79,028 | 40% | 7.1 d | 5.1 d | 6.0M |
| Aug 11, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 68,416 | 35% | 5.5 d | 12 min | 4.4M |
| Jul 26, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 34,976 | 18% | 3.5 d | 2.3 d | 1.5M |
| Jul 19, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 36,636 | 19% | 3.9 d | 18 h | 1.4M |
| Mar 3, 2023 | Winter storm | 39,558 | 20% | 3.0 d | 45 h | 1.3M |
| Aug 24, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 34,455 | 18% | 4.1 d | 2.3 d | 1.3M |
| Jul 26, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 19,257 | 10% | 31 h | 27 h | 349k |
| Aug 31, 2022 | No storm report | 15,628 | 8% | 2.0 d | 26 h | 348k |
| Apr 15, 2018 | Winter storm | 27,714 | 14% | 40 h | 3.0 h | 347k |
| Jun 25, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 11,980 | 6% | 46 h | 33 h | 318k |
| Dec 11, 2021 | Windstorm | 12,262 | 6% | 35 h | 39 h | 293k |
| Jan 12, 2024 | Winter storm | 10,855 | 6% | 30 h | 36 h | 225k |
| Sep 22, 2021 | No storm report | 8,053 | 4% | 44 h | 44 h | 214k |
| Aug 27, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 10,735 | 5% | 36 h | 45 h | 185k |
| Nov 15, 2020 | Windstorm | 7,790 | 4% | 31 h | 7.5 h | 183k |
| Jul 19, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 10,539 | 5% | 27 h | 10 h | 173k |
| Mar 1, 2018 | Winter storm | 9,667 | 5% | 29 h | 6.2 h | 173k |
| Jun 27, 2020 | No storm report | 10,397 | 5% | 23 h | 7.2 h | 139k |
| Sep 11, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 8,199 | 4% | 24 h | 14 h | 121k |
| Mar 25, 2023 | No storm report | 8,889 | 5% | 25 h | 26 h | 98k |
| Feb 19, 2016 | Windstorm | 5,519 | 3% | 24 h | 11 h | 94k |
| Jun 27, 2015 | No storm report | 4,281 | 2% | 31 h | – | 89k |
| Feb 24, 2019 | Windstorm | 4,941 | 3% | 27 h | – | 87k |
| Jul 23, 2019 | No storm report | 4,520 | 2% | 24 h | – | 71k |
| Oct 20, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 4,786 | 2% | 21 h | – | 67k |
| Dec 28, 2015 | No storm report | 6,066 | 3% | 19 h | 28 h | 64k |
| Mar 30, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 4,277 | 2% | 19 h | – | 64k |
| May 30, 2018 | Tropical Storm Alberto | 4,598 | 2% | 17 h | – | 57k |
| Aug 29, 2022 | No storm report | 6,880 | 4% | 25 h | 37 h | 56k |
| Aug 1, 2018 | No storm report | 4,435 | 2% | 13 h | – | 47k |
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 Washtenaw from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 48%
- Ice storm 28%
- Winter storm 10.0%
- No storm on record 9.6%
- Windstorm 3.2%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Washtenaw
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DTE Electric Company | Investor Owned | 192 | 151 | 1.16 | 20.3 | 2.1M |
| Consumers Energy Co | Investor Owned | 820 | 164 | 1.40 | 20.7 | 1.7M |
| Village of Chelsea | MI | – | – | – | – | 21k |
| Village of Clinton | MI | – | – | – | – | 9.2k |
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
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 195,553 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 →