Power outage history
Hale County Texas
3.1hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
223rd most of 240 in Texas 53% 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 Hale's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2020 was the worst well-recorded year, at 9.6 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Hale, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 27, 2020 | Winter storm | 10,794 | 70% | 3.1 d | 19 h | 120k |
| Mar 14, 2025 | Windstorm | 1,553 | 10% | 24 h | 13 h | 18k |
| Feb 16, 2021 | Winter storm | 6,666 | 43% | 4.8 h | 2.2 h | 17k |
| Jun 12, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 2,992 | 19% | 33 h | 26 h | 16k |
| Jul 2, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 1,207 | 8% | 12 h | 48 min | 13k |
| Oct 13, 2019 | No storm report | 2,340 | 15% | 6.0 h | 7.8 h | 11k |
| May 26, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 2,249 | 15% | 4.0 h | 2.0 h | 7.5k |
| Mar 16, 2022 | No storm report | 2,314 | 15% | 3.0 h | 4.0 h | 6.9k |
| Feb 26, 2023 | Windstorm | 989 | 6% | 19 h | 18 h | 6.9k |
| May 6, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 1,235 | 8% | 4.5 h | 4.5 h | 5.5k |
| Dec 26, 2015 | No storm report | 955 | 6% | 6.2 h | 5.8 h | 4.6k |
| Jun 15, 2016 | No storm report | 2,054 | 13% | 4.2 h | 48 min | 4.4k |
| Sep 10, 2023 | No storm report | 2,802 | 18% | 2.0 h | 1.2 h | 4.1k |
| Apr 30, 2019 | No storm report | 1,443 | 9% | 4.8 h | 3.0 h | 3.9k |
| Jul 23, 2023 | No storm report | 1,546 | 10% | 4.0 h | 2.0 h | 3.9k |
| Jul 15, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 1,930 | 13% | 3.2 h | 2.5 h | 3.6k |
| Nov 8, 2020 | No storm report | 1,130 | 7% | 3.2 h | 3.0 h | 3.6k |
| May 15, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 1,246 | 8% | 5.0 h | 4.2 h | 3.4k |
| May 22, 2017 | No storm report | 2,889 | 19% | 1.0 h | 1.2 h | 2.9k |
| May 25, 2019 | Tornadoes | 867 | 6% | 3.8 h | 4.2 h | 2.7k |
| Mar 31, 2019 | No storm report | 1,506 | 10% | 1.8 h | 1.2 h | 2.6k |
| Nov 3, 2024 | No storm report | 1,159 | 8% | 2.2 h | 11 h | 2.6k |
| Aug 11, 2020 | No storm report | 1,159 | 8% | 3.0 h | 2.0 h | 2.6k |
| Jun 30, 2015 | No storm report | 1,291 | 8% | 2.0 h | 1.5 h | 2.6k |
| Jun 26, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 1,328 | 9% | 1.8 h | 1.5 h | 2.3k |
| Sep 16, 2017 | No storm report | 2,105 | 14% | 1.2 h | 48 min | 2.2k |
| Oct 9, 2019 | No storm report | 3,567 | 23% | 48 min | 30 min | 2.2k |
| Sep 2, 2015 | No storm report | 1,443 | 9% | 1.5 h | 5.5 h | 2.2k |
| Apr 9, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 1,023 | 7% | 2.8 h | 1.2 h | 2.2k |
| May 19, 2023 | No storm report | 2,320 | 15% | 1.5 h | 1.5 h | 2.0k |
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 Hale from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Winter storm 45%
- No storm on record 33%
- Thunderstorms 11%
- Windstorm 10%
- Tornadoes 0.9%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Hale
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Texas territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwestern Public Service Co | Investor Owned | 441 | 151 | 1.71 | 13.9 | 224k |
| South Plains Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | – | – | – | 11.0 | 59k |
| Swisher Electric Coop, Inc | TX | 426 | – | 4.02 | 11.7 | 24k |
| Lighthouse Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | – | – | – | 16.2 | 3.9k |
| Lamb County Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 43 | 43 | – | 9.8 | 2.8k |
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.
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 15,402 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 →