Power outage history
Santa Cruz County Arizona
1.4hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
78% 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 Santa Cruz'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 2.2 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Santa Cruz, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 1, 2023 | No storm report | 19,353 | 94% | 12 h | 4.2 h | 179k |
| Jun 1, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 2,487 | 12% | 9.5 h | 9.2 h | 16k |
| Feb 20, 2022 | No storm report | 18,825 | 91% | 1.0 h | 48 min | 12k |
| Aug 18, 2017 | No storm report | 4,492 | 22% | 2.8 h | 2.8 h | 11k |
| Aug 23, 2018 | Flooding | 1,849 | 9% | 4.8 h | 3.5 h | 6.6k |
| Jul 31, 2022 | Flooding | 2,799 | 14% | 3.8 h | 2.2 h | 6.3k |
| Sep 15, 2022 | No storm report | 3,537 | 17% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 6.1k |
| Feb 19, 2019 | No storm report | 2,027 | 10% | 5.2 h | 2.2 h | 5.7k |
| Feb 4, 2024 | No storm report | 1,142 | 6% | 4.2 h | 4.2 h | 4.4k |
| Oct 23, 2023 | No storm report | 1,627 | 8% | 3.5 h | 3.5 h | 4.2k |
| Aug 8, 2021 | Flooding | 2,030 | 10% | 2.8 h | 2.8 h | 4.1k |
| Jul 14, 2024 | No storm report | 2,297 | 11% | 3.0 h | 3.0 h | 4.1k |
| Aug 1, 2018 | No storm report | 1,854 | 9% | 4.8 h | 3.5 h | 3.8k |
| Aug 6, 2024 | Flooding | 1,896 | 9% | 5.0 h | 4.5 h | 3.7k |
| Sep 30, 2016 | No storm report | 1,695 | 8% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 3.1k |
| Mar 4, 2019 | No storm report | 646 | 3% | 6.2 h | – | 2.9k |
| Jul 27, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 926 | 4% | 4.0 h | – | 2.9k |
| Jul 12, 2021 | No storm report | 1,365 | 7% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 2.7k |
| Aug 1, 2020 | Heat | 2,074 | 10% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 2.6k |
| Jul 12, 2020 | Wildfire | 2,074 | 10% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 2.6k |
| Aug 28, 2021 | Flooding | 2,030 | 10% | 1.2 h | 5.2 h | 2.5k |
| Sep 25, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 1,318 | 6% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 2.5k |
| Jul 22, 2019 | No storm report | 4,996 | 24% | 30 min | 30 min | 2.5k |
| Jun 29, 2016 | No storm report | 390 | 2% | 6.0 h | – | 2.3k |
| Jul 8, 2024 | No storm report | 1,762 | 9% | 1.5 h | 1.5 h | 2.3k |
| Oct 23, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 1,895 | 9% | 1.2 h | 1.0 h | 2.2k |
| Mar 21, 2022 | Wildfire | 2,052 | 10% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 2.1k |
| May 31, 2023 | No storm report | 1,150 | 6% | 1.8 h | 1.8 h | 2.0k |
| Sep 26, 2022 | No storm report | 3,843 | 19% | 48 min | 48 min | 2.0k |
| Jun 17, 2021 | Heat | 613 | 3% | 4.2 h | – | 1.9k |
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.
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 Santa Cruz from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 78%
- Thunderstorms 7.8%
- Flooding 7.6%
- Wildfire 3.5%
- Heat 1.9%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Santa Cruz
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Arizona territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona Public Service Co | Investor Owned | 73 | 73 | 0.84 | 17.0 | 1.3M |
| UNS Electric, Inc | Investor Owned | 81 | 64 | 0.94 | 17.0 | 95k |
| Trico Electric Cooperative Inc | Cooperative | 90 | 66 | 0.73 | 14.3 | 54k |
| Sulphur Springs Valley E C Inc | Cooperative | 92 | 83 | 0.83 | 14.6 | 46k |
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 20,697 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 →