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

Power outage history

Lake County Montana

2.6hours

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

30th most of 35 in Montana 60% below the national median

Worst outage on record Dec 17, 2025 22% of customers out · 90% back in 2.1 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 2.6h / yr State average 4.9 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 1.3 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 1hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 3.2days Dec 17, 2025, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 85% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2025 4.8 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 24,041 ORNL customer model · 7 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 Lake'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

2025 was the worst well-recorded year, at 4.8 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Lake, hours without power per customer

LakeUS median countyMontana average
0 2 4 6 8 ’15 0.6 ’16 0.7 ’17 0.4 ’18 ’19 4.0 ’20 1.6 ’21 3.1 ’22 0.8 ’23 3.5 ’24 4.8 ’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
Dec 17, 2025 Windstorm 5,323 22% 3.2 d 2.1 d 99k
Nov 2, 2022 Winter storm 3,140 13% 44 h 37 h 47k
Aug 23, 2024 Thunderstorms 3,412 14% 22 h 9.8 h 37k
May 31, 2020 Thunderstorms 2,014 8% 37 h 31 h 34k
Mar 13, 2020 Windstorm 982 4% 2.2 d – 33k
Jan 13, 2021 Windstorm 979 4% 2.5 d – 27k
Feb 1, 2020 Windstorm 1,313 5% 23 h 18 h 15k
Oct 4, 2024 Windstorm 1,272 5% 9.8 h 7.8 h 11k
Nov 27, 2019 Windstorm 1,994 8% 9.5 h 5.2 h 9.9k
Dec 22, 2022 Winter storm 1,133 5% 12 h – 6.5k
Jun 11, 2023 No storm report 3,084 13% 2.0 h 1.2 h 5.9k
Dec 19, 2017 Winter storm 975 4% 6.2 h – 5.9k

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

  • Windstorm 51%
  • Thunderstorms 18%
  • Winter storm 16%
  • No storm on record 16%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Lake

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
Flathead Electric Coop Inc Cooperative 886 174 2.29 10.0 64k
USBIA-Mission Valley Power Federal – – – 9.4 16k
Missoula Electric Coop, Inc Cooperative 1,332 363 2.40 10.9 15k

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 24,041 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 →