Power Out Map
– 0% of Hand out 0 customers out in South Dakota

Power outage history

Hand County South Dakota

The outage record here is too thin for a reliable yearly average. Raw events are listed below.

Worst outage on record Jul 5, 2022 19% of customers out · 90% back in 6.8 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year –h / yr State average 4.8 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year – Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 4hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 9hours Oct 25, 2024, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 32% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year –
Electricity customers 1,991 ORNL customer model · 0 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 Hand'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

Hand, hours without power per customer

HandUS median countySouth Dakota average
0 2 4 6 8 ’19 ’20 ’21 ’22 ’23 ’24 ’25 US 6.6 SD 4.8

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
Jul 5, 2022 Thunderstorms 388 19% 8.8 h 6.8 h 1.4k
Oct 25, 2024 No storm report 146 7% 9.2 h 9.2 h 1.4k
Mar 19, 2020 No storm report 182 9% 6.8 h 6.8 h 1.2k
Jul 14, 2021 No storm report 313 16% 4.0 h 3.8 h 1.2k
Nov 10, 2022 Ice storm 339 17% 3.8 h 4.2 h 1.1k
May 12, 2022 No storm report 338 17% 2.2 h 2.2 h 760
Sep 14, 2021 No storm report 276 14% 2.8 h 1.8 h 396
Jul 26, 2023 No storm report 145 7% 2.0 h 2.0 h 290
Sep 3, 2025 No storm report 66 3% 1.5 h – 99
Nov 7, 2022 No storm report 77 4% 1.0 h – 77

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

  • No storm on record 68%
  • Thunderstorms 18%
  • Ice storm 14%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Hand

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
NorthWestern Energy Investor Owned 120 82 1.14 13.3 52k
City of Miller SD – – – 8.9 12k
Northern Electric Coop, Inc Cooperative 73 65 0.74 11.4 5.8k
Dakota Energy Coop Inc Cooperative – – – 16.3 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

Across South Dakota

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All South Dakota 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 1,991 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 →