Power Out Map
– 0% of Carlton out 0 customers out in Minnesota

Power outage history

Carlton County Minnesota

4.6hours

without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025

10th most of 54 in Minnesota 30% below the national median

Worst outage on record Dec 15, 2022 34% of customers out · 90% back in 2.2 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 4.6h / yr State average 2.9 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 0.8 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 11hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 3.7days Jul 21, 2016, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 68% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2022 13 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 22,459 ORNL customer model · 8 well-covered years

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 Carlton's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.

20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
0%100% of customers out

Year by year

Hours in the dark, per customer

2022 was the worst well-recorded year, at 13 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Carlton, hours without power per customer

CarltonUS median countyMinnesota average
0 5 10 15 2.2 ’15 8.1 ’16 1.5 ’17 1.4 ’18 2.7 ’19 6.2 ’20 2.9 ’21 13 ’22 2.5 ’23 3.7 ’24 4.0 ’25 US 6.6 MN 2.9

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, 2022 Winter storm 7,550 34% 3.6 d 2.2 d 249k
Jul 21, 2016 Thunderstorms 3,592 16% 3.7 d 36 h 119k
Mar 29, 2020 Winter storm 4,527 20% 33 h 14 h 57k
Aug 14, 2020 Thunderstorms 4,418 20% 27 h 1.2 h 26k
Jun 19, 2016 Thunderstorms 3,269 15% 17 h 12 h 26k
Sep 17, 2025 No storm report 894 4% 21 h – 17k
Dec 1, 2019 Winter storm 2,461 11% 12 h 9.5 h 17k
Sep 28, 2015 No storm report 663 3% 24 h – 15k
Oct 5, 2021 No storm report 1,664 7% 18 h 25 h 13k
May 8, 2019 Winter storm 1,023 5% 19 h – 12k
Feb 28, 2025 No storm report 1,808 8% 12 h 1.2 h 10k
Apr 20, 2023 Winter storm 1,951 9% 12 h 30 min 8.8k

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.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100% peak+24h+48h+72h+96h half back by +4h 90% by +14h

When it happens

The outage clock

Customer-hours out by month (rings, January innermost) and local hour, 2018–2025.

00061218 Jan inside

What was happening

Weather behind the outages

Each outage is matched to NOAA storm reports for Carlton from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • Winter storm 58%
  • No storm on record 32%
  • Thunderstorms 8.5%
  • Ice storm 1.4%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Carlton

As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Minnesota territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.

Utility Type Outage min / yr Excl. major storms Outages / yr Residential ¢/kWh Customers
ALLETE, Inc. Investor Owned 143 102 1.23 15.9 127k
Lake Country Power Cooperative 415 141 2.32 18.3 47k
Moose Lake Water & Light Comm MN – – – 11.3 5.4k

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

Across Minnesota

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Minnesota 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 22,459 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 →