Power Out Map
– 0% of Fergus out 0 customers out in Montana

Power outage history

Fergus County Montana

4.1hours

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

25th most of 35 in Montana 38% below the national median

Worst outage on record Apr 11, 2020 79% of customers out · 90% back in 5.5 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 4.1h / yr State average 4.9 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 2.7 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 2hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 2.0days Dec 1, 2021, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 19% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2020 7.3 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 5,384 ORNL customer model · 6 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 Fergus'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

2020 was the worst well-recorded year, at 7.3 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Fergus, hours without power per customer

FergusUS median countyMontana average
0 2 4 6 8 10 ’19 7.3 ’20 3.6 ’21 4.7 ’22 1.7 ’23 2.8 ’24 4.4 ’25 US 6.6 MT 4.9

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 11, 2020 No storm report 4,252 79% 7.2 h 5.5 h 17k
Dec 1, 2021 No storm report 353 7% 2.0 d 2.0 d 12k
May 7, 2020 No storm report 1,796 33% 17 h 7.2 h 11k
Oct 23, 2022 Winter storm 1,464 27% 11 h 11 h 9.2k
Oct 26, 2022 No storm report 4,101 76% 2.2 h 48 min 8.5k
May 7, 2024 Windstorm 529 10% 37 h 23 h 7.5k
Jun 25, 2025 No storm report 2,802 52% 2.5 h 1.2 h 5.8k
Aug 5, 2024 No storm report 2,801 52% 1.8 h 30 min 4.3k
Jul 12, 2023 No storm report 709 13% 4.8 h 4.8 h 3.4k
May 23, 2022 No storm report 1,628 30% 2.0 h 2.0 h 3.3k
Nov 4, 2020 No storm report 1,330 25% 2.0 h 6.2 h 2.7k
Dec 19, 2025 Windstorm 342 6% 7.2 h 12 h 2.5k

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.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100% peak+24h+48h+72h+96h half back by +4h 90% by +6h

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

  • No storm on record 81%
  • Windstorm 10%
  • Winter storm 8.3%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Fergus

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
NorthWestern Energy LLC Investor Owned 125 117 1.10 14.4 334k
Hill County Electric Coop, Inc MT – – – 14.0 36k
Fergus Electric Coop, Inc Cooperative 480 284 3.03 15.9 6.9k

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 Montana

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Montana 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 5,384 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 →