Power outage history
Madison County Alabama
2.2hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
57th most of 60 in Alabama 66% 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 Madison's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2023 was the worst well-recorded year, at 4.4 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Madison, 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 20, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 14,327 | 7% | 36 h | 31 h | 364k |
| May 20, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 18,523 | 9% | 24 h | 21 h | 161k |
| Jul 18, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 31,102 | 16% | 7.0 h | 2.2 h | 138k |
| Aug 6, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 23,169 | 12% | 7.2 h | 3.0 h | 122k |
| May 8, 2024 | Tornadoes | 10,296 | 5% | 24 h | 21 h | 119k |
| Mar 3, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 23,659 | 12% | 12 h | 8.5 h | 93k |
| Jun 15, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 9,381 | 5% | 19 h | 19 h | 64k |
| Jan 1, 2022 | Tornadoes | 4,906 | 2% | 19 h | – | 57k |
| Apr 10, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 12,054 | 6% | 11 h | 16 h | 50k |
| May 3, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 10,124 | 5% | 7.2 h | 6.5 h | 49k |
| Feb 20, 2021 | No storm report | 19,947 | 10% | 3.2 h | 2.2 h | 46k |
| Jun 11, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 12,771 | 6% | 4.8 h | 2.5 h | 44k |
| Sep 27, 2020 | No storm report | 14,702 | 7% | 2.5 h | 1.5 h | 37k |
| Mar 24, 2020 | Flooding | 16,121 | 8% | 2.2 h | 30 min | 34k |
| Jul 21, 2023 | Flooding | 13,768 | 7% | 3.8 h | 1.8 h | 31k |
| Jun 28, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 11,415 | 6% | 6.0 h | 4.2 h | 30k |
| Apr 5, 2023 | No storm report | 17,699 | 9% | 2.8 h | 1.0 h | 30k |
| Aug 10, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 6,329 | 3% | 9.0 h | 8.0 h | 29k |
| Aug 9, 2023 | No storm report | 11,825 | 6% | 2.2 h | 1.8 h | 27k |
| Apr 3, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 10,059 | 5% | 4.2 h | 3.2 h | 26k |
| Jan 11, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 13,173 | 7% | 3.5 h | 2.8 h | 26k |
| Aug 6, 2020 | No storm report | 14,591 | 7% | 1.8 h | 4.0 h | 26k |
| Aug 24, 2016 | No storm report | 9,949 | 5% | 2.2 h | 1.0 h | 22k |
| Jul 13, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 7,508 | 4% | 4.2 h | 3.2 h | 22k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | Winter storm | 4,682 | 2% | 7.8 h | – | 22k |
| May 13, 2021 | No storm report | 2,121 | 1% | 11 h | – | 22k |
| Dec 16, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 6,305 | 3% | 4.2 h | 3.2 h | 20k |
| Jan 4, 2025 | No storm report | 6,578 | 3% | 3.0 h | 2.5 h | 19k |
| Jul 11, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 6,106 | 3% | 4.0 h | 2.0 h | 18k |
| Jun 15, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 19,919 | 10% | 1.5 h | 48 min | 17k |
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 Madison from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 51%
- No storm on record 29%
- Tornadoes 9.2%
- Flooding 4.4%
- Winter storm 2.7%
- Tropical storm 1.7%
- Windstorm 0.9%
- Heat 0.6%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Madison
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Alabama territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Huntsville | Municipal | 120 | 120 | 1.03 | 12.5 | 202k |
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
- Franklin, TN 3.0 h
- Madison (this county) 2.2 h
- Morgan 1.1 h
- Marshall 0.1 h
- Jackson 0.1 h
- Limestone 0.0 h
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 198,793 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 →