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

Power outage history

Cass County Minnesota

8.6hours

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

3rd most of 54 in Minnesota 1.3× the national median

Worst outage on record Jul 21, 2016 59% of customers out · 90% back in 3.6 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 8.6h / yr State average 2.9 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 1.5 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 9hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 4.8days Jul 21, 2016, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 50% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2022 27 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 23,771 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 Cass'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 27 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Cass, hours without power per customer

CassUS median countyMinnesota average
0 10 20 30 40 50 7.2 ’15 42 ’16 5.7 ’17 5.2 ’18 3.6 ’19 6.9 ’20 4.9 ’21 27 ’22 3.5 ’23 7.8 ’24 9.8 ’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
Jul 21, 2016 Thunderstorms 14,111 59% 4.8 d 3.6 d 709k
May 30, 2022 Thunderstorms 8,131 34% 2.1 d 29 h 194k
Dec 15, 2022 No storm report 5,681 24% 2.6 d 2.1 d 179k
Jun 20, 2022 Thunderstorms 7,984 34% 44 h 38 h 131k
Nov 18, 2016 Winter storm 4,677 20% 2.1 d 47 h 104k
Jun 21, 2025 Thunderstorms 7,469 31% 21 h 15 h 90k
Jul 12, 2015 Thunderstorms 1,890 8% 44 h 40 h 43k
Sep 20, 2017 Thunderstorms 3,421 14% 25 h 19 h 42k
Jul 10, 2016 No storm report 2,597 11% 23 h 16 h 35k
Jul 17, 2020 Thunderstorms 5,171 22% 17 h 11 h 28k
Oct 5, 2024 No storm report 6,018 25% 15 h 9.0 h 26k
May 12, 2022 Thunderstorms 2,793 12% 18 h 13 h 21k

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 +8h 90% by +24h

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 Cass from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • No storm on record 50%
  • Thunderstorms 47%
  • Winter storm 2.7%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Cass

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
Todd-Wadena Electric Coop MN 73 66 0.83 11.0 128k
ALLETE, Inc. Investor Owned 143 102 1.23 15.9 127k
Otter Tail Power Co Investor Owned 557 136 1.74 11.3 50k
Lake Country Power Cooperative 415 141 2.32 18.3 47k
Crow Wing Cooperative Power & Light Comp Cooperative 130 62 0.93 14.3 45k
Beltrami Electric Coop, Inc Cooperative 118 96 1.31 15.5 21k
Itasca-Mantrap Co-op Electrical Assn Cooperative 196 105 1.49 13.1 11k

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 23,771 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 →