Power Out Map
– 0% of Cherokee out 0 customers out in Iowa

Power outage history

Cherokee County Iowa

2.1hours

without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025

72nd most of 98 in Iowa 67% below the national median

Worst outage on record Mar 19, 2025 52% of customers out · 90% back in 3.2 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 2.1h / yr State average 5.4 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 2.0 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 2hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 23hours Jul 28, 2025, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 56% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2025 6.2 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 5,968 ORNL customer model · 8 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 Cherokee'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

2025 was the worst well-recorded year, at 6.2 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Cherokee, hours without power per customer

CherokeeUS median countyIowa average
0 2 4 6 8 ’15 2.0 ’16 0.8 ’17 1.6 ’18 0.9 ’19 0.8 ’20 2.9 ’21 1.3 ’22 0.9 ’23 2.5 ’24 6.2 ’25 US 6.6 IA 5.4

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
Mar 19, 2025 Winter storm 3,081 52% 5.5 h 3.2 h 8.7k
Jul 28, 2025 Thunderstorms 1,538 26% 23 h 7.5 h 8.2k
Jun 16, 2025 Thunderstorms 1,889 32% 8.5 h 3.5 h 7.2k
Jun 18, 2021 No storm report 1,152 19% 7.5 h 6.2 h 6.6k
Dec 26, 2016 Windstorm 2,379 40% 3.5 h 2.2 h 4.3k
Jul 30, 2024 Thunderstorms 1,074 18% 7.0 h 4.5 h 3.4k
Jul 11, 2025 No storm report 1,347 23% 2.8 h 30 min 2.9k
Jun 17, 2022 No storm report 1,009 17% 3.0 h 2.5 h 2.7k
Dec 15, 2021 Thunderstorms 384 6% 11 h 7.8 h 2.4k
Aug 27, 2021 Thunderstorms 878 15% 2.2 h 1.5 h 2.0k
Feb 18, 2025 Winter storm 865 14% 2.8 h 2.0 h 1.9k
Jul 11, 2018 Flooding 410 7% 4.5 h 3.5 h 1.8k

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 +2h 90% by +4h

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

  • No storm on record 44%
  • Thunderstorms 31%
  • Winter storm 18%
  • Flooding 5.3%
  • Heat 1.5%
  • Windstorm 1.1%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Cherokee

As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Iowa territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.

Utility Type Outage min / yr Excl. major storms Outages / yr Residential ¢/kWh Customers
MidAmerican Energy Co Investor Owned 205 82 1.19 11.2 640k
Interstate Power and Light Co Investor Owned 89 74 0.82 17.8 419k
Woodbury County Rural E C A IA 106 106 1.01 14.0 57k
Iowa Lakes Electric Coop Cooperative 55 54 0.44 13.8 9.8k
North West Rural Electric Coop Cooperative 188 115 1.11 9.4 9.5k
City of Aurelia IA – – – – 4.8k
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 Iowa

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Iowa 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 5,968 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 →