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

Power outage history

Steele County Minnesota

0.8hours

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

88% below the national median

Worst outage on record Apr 11, 2019 4% of customers out · lasted 46 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 0.8h / yr State average 2.9 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 0.0 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% – Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 46hours Apr 10, 2019, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 77% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2019 1.6 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 17,365 ORNL customer model · 3 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 Steele'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

2019 was the worst well-recorded year, at 1.6 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Steele, hours without power per customer

SteeleUS median countyMinnesota average
0 2 4 6 8 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 1.6 ’19 0.2 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’23 ’24 0.5 ’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
Apr 10, 2019 Winter storm 673 4% 46 h – 24k
Dec 15, 2021 Tornadoes 396 2% 18 h – 5.9k
Jul 28, 2025 Thunderstorms 570 3% 11 h – 4.3k
Sep 20, 2018 Tornadoes 383 2% 10 h – 3.8k
May 16, 2017 No storm report 700 4% 3.5 h – 1.9k
Jul 8, 2025 No storm report 309 2% 5.8 h – 1.8k
Mar 29, 2025 No storm report 306 2% 5.8 h – 1.8k
Aug 2, 2023 No storm report 302 2% 4.8 h – 1.4k
Apr 14, 2017 No storm report 303 2% 4.5 h – 1.4k
Jul 15, 2021 No storm report 308 2% 4.2 h – 1.3k
Apr 10, 2020 No storm report 308 2% 4.0 h – 1.2k
Jul 20, 2019 Thunderstorms 175 1% 8.0 h – 1.2k

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

  • Winter storm 46%
  • No storm on record 23%
  • Tornadoes 19%
  • Thunderstorms 12%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Steele

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
Northern States Power Co - Minnesota Investor Owned 226 115 1.38 17.1 1.2M
Freeborn Mower Electric Cooperative Cooperative 172 56 1.58 15.3 18k
City of Owatonna Municipal 100 10 0.76 15.0 12k
Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric Cooperative 90 56 0.74 16.5 11k
City of Blooming Prairie MN 138 138 1.02 – 7.1k

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 17,365 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 →