Power outage history
Yellow Medicine County Minnesota
3.3hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
21st most of 54 in Minnesota 51% 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 Yellow Medicine'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 9.5 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Yellow Medicine, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 30, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 622 | 14% | 2.4 d | 2.0 d | 17k |
| Aug 8, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 1,654 | 38% | 29 h | 23 h | 10k |
| May 12, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 726 | 17% | 16 h | 13 h | 6.4k |
| Apr 12, 2022 | No storm report | 449 | 10% | 25 h | 16 h | 6.1k |
| Oct 21, 2019 | No storm report | 972 | 23% | 7.0 h | 3.8 h | 4.4k |
| Apr 3, 2020 | No storm report | 702 | 16% | 5.5 h | 5.5 h | 3.9k |
| Aug 28, 2015 | No storm report | 696 | 16% | 7.5 h | 4.8 h | 3.1k |
| Apr 11, 2019 | Winter storm | 284 | 7% | 12 h | 6.5 h | 2.5k |
| Mar 5, 2018 | Winter storm | 575 | 13% | 4.5 h | 5.0 h | 2.4k |
| Jun 20, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 702 | 16% | 13 h | 3.8 h | 2.4k |
| Dec 10, 2024 | No storm report | 699 | 16% | 4.2 h | 4.2 h | 2.1k |
| May 16, 2017 | No storm report | 1,077 | 25% | 3.8 h | 1.5 h | 2.1k |
| Jul 20, 2019 | No storm report | 517 | 12% | 3.8 h | 1.2 h | 1.8k |
| Jun 30, 2022 | Windstorm | 456 | 11% | 12 h | 3.2 h | 1.8k |
| Jul 21, 2025 | No storm report | 696 | 16% | 2.2 h | 2.2 h | 1.6k |
| Jul 14, 2019 | No storm report | 577 | 13% | 2.8 h | 2.8 h | 1.5k |
| Apr 30, 2022 | No storm report | 499 | 12% | 3.0 h | 4.8 h | 1.5k |
| Jun 14, 2020 | No storm report | 494 | 11% | 3.0 h | 1.8 h | 1.4k |
| Aug 4, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 699 | 16% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 1.3k |
| Aug 6, 2025 | No storm report | 497 | 12% | 2.8 h | 2.5 h | 1.3k |
| Jul 1, 2021 | No storm report | 466 | 11% | 2.5 h | 2.8 h | 1.2k |
| Jul 4, 2018 | No storm report | 377 | 9% | 3.2 h | 1.5 h | 1.1k |
| Oct 11, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 462 | 11% | 2.8 h | 2.0 h | 1.1k |
| Jul 1, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 259 | 6% | 9.0 h | 17 h | 1.1k |
| Jun 11, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 251 | 6% | 14 h | 8.8 h | 1.0k |
| Nov 4, 2019 | No storm report | 500 | 12% | 2.0 h | 1.8 h | 998 |
| May 23, 2018 | No storm report | 477 | 11% | 2.2 h | 2.0 h | 975 |
| Aug 22, 2024 | No storm report | 475 | 11% | 2.0 h | 30 min | 947 |
| Nov 13, 2020 | No storm report | 221 | 5% | 4.0 h | 4.2 h | 884 |
| Sep 17, 2024 | No storm report | 476 | 11% | 1.8 h | 2.2 h | 833 |
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 Yellow Medicine from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 51%
- Thunderstorms 41%
- Winter storm 5.5%
- Windstorm 1.9%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Yellow Medicine
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 |
| Lyon-Lincoln Electric Cooperative, Inc. | MN | 349 | 127 | 2.02 | 11.5 | 77k |
| Otter Tail Power Co | Investor Owned | 557 | 136 | 1.74 | 11.3 | 50k |
| City of Granite Falls | MN | – | – | – | – | 13k |
| Minnesota Valley Coop L&P Assn | Cooperative | 125 | 65 | 1.51 | 13.2 | 4.9k |
| H-D Electric Coop Inc | SD | – | – | – | 12.9 | 106 |
| WAPA-- Western Area Power Administration | Federal | – | – | – | – | – |
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 4,318 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 →