Power outage history
St. Louis County Minnesota
4.1hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
13th most of 54 in Minnesota 38% 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 St. Louis's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2022 was the worst well-recorded year, at 7.0 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
St. Louis, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 21, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 34,294 | 27% | 6.3 d | 2.4 d | 2.0M |
| Jun 29, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 6,885 | 5% | 2.3 d | 2.3 d | 216k |
| Dec 15, 2022 | Winter storm | 7,856 | 6% | 2.4 d | 27 h | 199k |
| Nov 18, 2016 | Winter storm | 7,048 | 6% | 2.1 d | 40 h | 196k |
| Jun 20, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 9,065 | 7% | 44 h | 48 h | 182k |
| May 29, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 8,327 | 7% | 22 h | 21 h | 74k |
| Nov 27, 2021 | No storm report | 1,311 | 1% | 2.0 d | – | 62k |
| May 31, 2022 | Flooding | 6,041 | 5% | 20 h | 6.2 h | 61k |
| Mar 29, 2020 | Winter storm | 7,446 | 6% | 16 h | 11 h | 58k |
| Jul 27, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 7,769 | 6% | 15 h | 12 h | 57k |
| Oct 26, 2017 | Winter storm | 7,341 | 6% | 16 h | 8.5 h | 55k |
| Apr 13, 2022 | No storm report | 11,356 | 9% | 5.8 h | 3.5 h | 42k |
| Jul 26, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 10,565 | 8% | 6.2 h | 4.0 h | 36k |
| Oct 3, 2018 | No storm report | 6,437 | 5% | 8.5 h | 7.2 h | 31k |
| Feb 22, 2017 | No storm report | 4,893 | 4% | 7.5 h | – | 29k |
| Oct 21, 2019 | Windstorm | 8,195 | 6% | 8.0 h | 5.8 h | 28k |
| Jul 5, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 5,321 | 4% | 8.5 h | 19 h | 28k |
| Oct 10, 2018 | No storm report | 4,460 | 4% | 11 h | – | 27k |
| Apr 20, 2023 | Winter storm | 8,091 | 6% | 6.8 h | 12 min | 26k |
| Aug 16, 2018 | No storm report | 3,315 | 3% | 7.2 h | – | 24k |
| Nov 11, 2024 | No storm report | 3,837 | 3% | 7.8 h | – | 23k |
| Dec 29, 2019 | Winter storm | 4,690 | 4% | 5.5 h | – | 23k |
| Jul 25, 2020 | No storm report | 6,865 | 5% | 4.0 h | 48 min | 21k |
| Jan 16, 2024 | No storm report | 1,839 | 1% | 13 h | – | 20k |
| Apr 21, 2018 | No storm report | 4,595 | 4% | 6.8 h | – | 19k |
| May 12, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 2,903 | 2% | 10 h | – | 18k |
| Jul 21, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 2,374 | 2% | 10 h | – | 18k |
| Mar 7, 2017 | Windstorm | 3,417 | 3% | 14 h | – | 18k |
| Nov 11, 2025 | No storm report | 4,452 | 4% | 6.5 h | – | 18k |
| Jun 25, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 4,133 | 3% | 8.0 h | – | 17k |
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 St. Louis from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 39%
- No storm on record 35%
- Winter storm 18%
- Flooding 5.3%
- Windstorm 1.4%
- Wildfire 0.7%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving St. Louis
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 |
| North Star Electric Coop, Inc | MN | 111 | 92 | 1.23 | 14.6 | 73k |
| Cooperative L&P Assn Lake County | MN | 508 | 508 | 2.88 | 13.5 | 60k |
| Lake Country Power | Cooperative | 415 | 141 | 2.32 | 18.3 | 47k |
| Hibbing Public Utilities Comm | MN | 193 | 193 | 3.53 | 13.0 | 39k |
| City of Virginia | MN | – | – | – | 12.3 | 34k |
| City of Ely | MN | – | – | – | 10.1 | 18k |
| Proctor Public Utilities Comm | MN | – | – | – | – | 14k |
| City of Mountain Iron | MN | – | – | – | – | 10k |
| City of Gilbert | MN | – | – | – | – | 5.9k |
| City of Buhl | MN | – | – | – | – | 3.8k |
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.
Next door
Neighbouring counties
- Aitkin 10 h
- Itasca 7.6 h
- Lake 7.3 h
- Carlton 4.6 h
- St. Louis (this county) 4.1 h
- Koochiching 1.8 h
- Douglas, WI 1.3 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 127,172 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 →