Power outage history
Brookings County South Dakota
2.1hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
31st most of 32 in South Dakota 69% 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 Brookings'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 8.9 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Brookings, 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 12, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 3,433 | 18% | 3.8 d | 9.5 h | 144k |
| Apr 23, 2022 | Windstorm | 1,865 | 10% | 2.8 h | 2.8 h | 3.7k |
| Jul 20, 2019 | Flooding | 858 | 5% | 7.8 h | – | 3.4k |
| May 24, 2021 | No storm report | 2,002 | 11% | 1.5 h | 1.2 h | 2.1k |
| Jul 20, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 2,232 | 12% | 1.5 h | 11 h | 1.9k |
| Jul 31, 2024 | Heat | 386 | 2% | 3.5 h | – | 1.3k |
| Apr 11, 2019 | Flooding | 202 | 1% | 6.8 h | – | 1.3k |
| Jun 20, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 360 | 2% | 4.0 h | – | 1.1k |
| Jun 24, 2023 | No storm report | 453 | 2% | 2.5 h | – | 1.1k |
| Jul 14, 2018 | No storm report | 550 | 3% | 2.0 h | – | 1.1k |
| Dec 15, 2022 | Winter storm | 320 | 2% | 6.8 h | – | 1.1k |
| Dec 14, 2022 | No storm report | 222 | 1% | 5.0 h | – | 1.0k |
| Nov 17, 2025 | No storm report | 434 | 2% | 2.0 h | – | 868 |
| Oct 13, 2023 | Windstorm | 452 | 2% | 2.8 h | – | 820 |
| Aug 28, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 279 | 1% | 4.2 h | – | 784 |
| May 30, 2022 | Tornadoes | 446 | 2% | 2.2 h | – | 588 |
| May 4, 2025 | No storm report | 209 | 1% | 2.8 h | – | 575 |
| Nov 19, 2024 | No storm report | 465 | 2% | 1.2 h | – | 542 |
| Jul 6, 2020 | No storm report | 390 | 2% | 1.2 h | – | 467 |
| Apr 20, 2023 | Flooding | 279 | 1% | 1.8 h | – | 442 |
| Oct 1, 2025 | No storm report | 197 | 1% | 2.2 h | – | 440 |
| Dec 13, 2022 | Ice storm | 224 | 1% | 2.2 h | – | 426 |
| Mar 29, 2023 | No storm report | 531 | 3% | 48 min | – | 398 |
| Aug 21, 2021 | No storm report | 241 | 1% | 1.8 h | – | 388 |
| Mar 21, 2023 | No storm report | 373 | 2% | 1.0 h | – | 373 |
| Feb 2, 2023 | No storm report | 203 | 1% | 2.0 h | – | 355 |
| Mar 24, 2024 | Winter storm | 354 | 2% | 1.0 h | – | 354 |
| Jun 5, 2021 | No storm report | 193 | 1% | 1.8 h | – | 338 |
| Feb 13, 2025 | Winter storm | 325 | 2% | 2.5 h | – | 325 |
| May 24, 2024 | No storm report | 209 | 1% | 1.5 h | – | 314 |
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 Brookings from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 84%
- No storm on record 7.7%
- Flooding 2.9%
- Windstorm 2.6%
- Winter storm 1.1%
- Heat 0.8%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Brookings
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole South Dakota territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H-D Electric Coop Inc | SD | 60 | 60 | 1.02 | 11.1 | 67k |
| Kingsbury Electric Coop, Inc | SD | – | – | – | – | 24k |
| Sioux Valley SW Elec Coop | Cooperative | 59 | 59 | 1.64 | 13.9 | 23k |
| City of Brookings | Municipal | 13 | 13 | 0.08 | 10.7 | 11k |
| Otter Tail Power Co | Investor Owned | 191 | 189 | 1.73 | 11.4 | 9.1k |
| City of Arlington | SD | – | – | – | – | 6.6k |
| City of Aurora | SD | – | – | – | – | 4.5k |
| City of White | SD | – | – | – | – | 3.2k |
| City of Volga | Municipal | – | – | – | 12.8 | 1.1k |
| 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 19,030 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 →