Power outage history
Polk County Missouri
3.4hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
81st most of 110 in Missouri 48% 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 Polk's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2021 was the worst well-recorded year, at 6.0 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Polk, 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 26, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 1,406 | 12% | 11 h | 11 h | 15k |
| Feb 1, 2025 | No storm report | 2,131 | 18% | 6.0 h | 3.2 h | 12k |
| Mar 14, 2021 | No storm report | 1,197 | 10% | 9.2 h | 12 h | 11k |
| May 27, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 762 | 7% | 21 h | 4.5 h | 11k |
| Jun 26, 2018 | No storm report | 3,335 | 28% | 3.8 h | 5.5 h | 10k |
| Oct 31, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 1,252 | 11% | 7.8 h | 5.8 h | 9.7k |
| Jan 1, 2021 | Winter storm | 1,437 | 12% | 14 h | 2.0 h | 8.5k |
| Mar 17, 2021 | No storm report | 3,342 | 29% | 2.5 h | 2.0 h | 7.8k |
| May 4, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 1,174 | 10% | 23 h | 22 h | 6.9k |
| May 30, 2018 | No storm report | 1,150 | 10% | 6.0 h | 13 h | 6.9k |
| Mar 20, 2022 | No storm report | 3,377 | 29% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 6.8k |
| Jul 13, 2023 | No storm report | 931 | 8% | 9.2 h | 6.5 h | 6.5k |
| Nov 23, 2025 | No storm report | 1,548 | 13% | 8.0 h | 12 h | 6.0k |
| May 1, 2021 | No storm report | 655 | 6% | 9.0 h | 12 h | 5.9k |
| Aug 20, 2017 | Flooding | 1,065 | 9% | 6.8 h | 9.2 h | 5.8k |
| Sep 27, 2024 | No storm report | 1,888 | 16% | 2.8 h | 2.8 h | 5.1k |
| Dec 5, 2021 | No storm report | 923 | 8% | 5.0 h | 5.0 h | 4.6k |
| Mar 6, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 2,090 | 18% | 6.5 h | 6.8 h | 4.4k |
| Jun 9, 2025 | No storm report | 960 | 8% | 10 h | 8.2 h | 3.9k |
| Jul 20, 2018 | No storm report | 695 | 6% | 7.8 h | 2.5 h | 3.8k |
| Jul 21, 2017 | No storm report | 782 | 7% | 4.8 h | 1.8 h | 3.5k |
| Oct 22, 2017 | No storm report | 3,257 | 28% | 1.8 h | 1.0 h | 3.4k |
| Dec 10, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 1,434 | 12% | 5.5 h | 4.5 h | 3.4k |
| Jun 6, 2016 | No storm report | 1,953 | 17% | 1.8 h | 1.2 h | 3.4k |
| Jun 26, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 942 | 8% | 7.8 h | 7.2 h | 3.2k |
| Nov 28, 2018 | No storm report | 1,153 | 10% | 2.8 h | 2.5 h | 3.0k |
| Apr 21, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 3,680 | 31% | 4.0 h | 30 min | 2.9k |
| Apr 30, 2025 | No storm report | 811 | 7% | 3.8 h | 2.2 h | 2.9k |
| Oct 12, 2017 | No storm report | 428 | 4% | 6.5 h | – | 2.8k |
| Apr 1, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 831 | 7% | 5.5 h | 2.5 h | 2.8k |
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.
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 Polk from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 65%
- Thunderstorms 29%
- Winter storm 4.1%
- Tornadoes 0.9%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Polk
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Missouri territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empire District Electric Co | Investor Owned | 167 | 110 | 1.10 | 14.8 | 144k |
| Sac-Osage Electric Coop Inc | MO | 208 | 205 | – | 12.9 | 133k |
| Southwest Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 356 | 214 | 1.00 | 12.3 | 42k |
| Ozark Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | – | – | – | 15.6 | 32k |
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.
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 11,719 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 →