Power outage history
Dawson County Montana
The outage record here is too thin for a reliable yearly average. Raw events are listed below.
Worst outage on record Jun 27, 2024 33% of customers out · 90% back in 6.2 hoursEvery day since 2015
Eleven years, one night at a time
Each cell is a day. The brighter it is, the larger the share of Dawson's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
Dawson, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 27, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 2,441 | 33% | 8.2 h | 6.2 h | 14k |
| Oct 13, 2021 | Winter storm | 2,570 | 35% | 6.2 h | 2.8 h | 9.0k |
| Jul 14, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 2,103 | 28% | 3.5 h | 1.5 h | 3.9k |
| Apr 23, 2018 | No storm report | 676 | 9% | 3.8 h | 1.0 h | 2.4k |
| Jun 13, 2023 | No storm report | 892 | 12% | 2.8 h | 1.8 h | 1.7k |
| Jun 18, 2023 | No storm report | 1,931 | 26% | 1.2 h | 1.0 h | 1.7k |
| May 24, 2017 | No storm report | 2,586 | 35% | 30 min | 30 min | 1.3k |
| Apr 23, 2022 | Winter storm | 1,801 | 24% | 1.8 h | 30 min | 1.0k |
| Jun 13, 2020 | Windstorm | 377 | 5% | 2.5 h | 2.8 h | 811 |
| Jul 15, 2022 | No storm report | 454 | 6% | 1.8 h | 1.8 h | 794 |
| Sep 20, 2018 | No storm report | 455 | 6% | 3.0 h | 2.2 h | 791 |
| Apr 23, 2022 | Winter storm | 945 | 13% | 1.0 h | 48 min | 730 |
| Apr 29, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 819 | 11% | 1.0 h | 30 min | 644 |
| Jul 16, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 223 | 3% | 2.8 h | – | 602 |
| Oct 25, 2024 | No storm report | 141 | 2% | 4.0 h | – | 558 |
| Jun 10, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 321 | 4% | 1.8 h | – | 536 |
| Oct 18, 2017 | No storm report | 524 | 7% | 1.0 h | 30 min | 524 |
| Apr 8, 2022 | No storm report | 663 | 9% | 1.0 h | 1.0 h | 518 |
| Dec 28, 2017 | No storm report | 79 | 1% | 5.5 h | – | 412 |
| Jul 31, 2019 | No storm report | 220 | 3% | 1.8 h | – | 330 |
| Mar 10, 2018 | No storm report | 100 | 1% | 3.5 h | – | 320 |
| Jul 14, 2022 | No storm report | 431 | 6% | 2.2 h | 2.2 h | 318 |
| Aug 5, 2018 | No storm report | 623 | 8% | 30 min | 12 min | 310 |
| May 5, 2024 | No storm report | 236 | 3% | 2.5 h | – | 294 |
| Aug 30, 2023 | No storm report | 208 | 3% | 1.5 h | – | 293 |
| Oct 24, 2023 | Winter storm | 200 | 3% | 1.5 h | – | 286 |
| Feb 14, 2022 | No storm report | 195 | 3% | 1.5 h | – | 286 |
| Apr 6, 2022 | No storm report | 124 | 2% | 2.2 h | – | 272 |
| May 31, 2019 | No storm report | 514 | 7% | 30 min | 30 min | 257 |
| Jun 8, 2019 | No storm report | 499 | 7% | 30 min | 30 min | 250 |
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 Dawson from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 44%
- No storm on record 29%
- Winter storm 25%
- Windstorm 2.1%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Dawson
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Montana territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tongue River Electric Coop Inc | MT | – | – | – | 14.1 | 56k |
| McCone Electric Coop Inc | MT | – | – | – | 13.5 | 49k |
| Montana-Dakota Utilities Co | Investor Owned | 146 | 146 | 1.23 | 12.3 | 20k |
| Goldenwest Electric Coop, Inc | MT | – | – | – | – | 7.0k |
| Lower Yellowstone R E A, Inc | Cooperative | 259 | 157 | 1.31 | 9.2 | 3.2k |
| 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
- Richland 7.8 h
- Dawson (this county) – 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 7,435 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 →