Power outage history
Kossuth County Iowa
1.6hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
89th most of 98 in Iowa 75% 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 Kossuth's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2025 was the worst well-recorded year, at 4.3 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Kossuth, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 4, 2025 | Winter storm | 1,586 | 21% | 23 h | 18 h | 12k |
| Oct 17, 2025 | No storm report | 84 | 1% | 4.6 d | – | 9.1k |
| Jun 10, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 582 | 8% | 12 h | 4.5 h | 6.3k |
| Aug 28, 2023 | No storm report | 896 | 12% | 5.5 h | 5.5 h | 4.9k |
| Mar 24, 2018 | Winter storm | 1,110 | 14% | 6.5 h | 12 min | 4.1k |
| Sep 18, 2019 | No storm report | 1,054 | 14% | 3.0 h | 1.8 h | 3.2k |
| Nov 11, 2020 | No storm report | 1,212 | 16% | 4.0 h | 3.5 h | 3.0k |
| Jul 10, 2017 | No storm report | 1,164 | 15% | 2.5 h | 1.0 h | 2.3k |
| Dec 28, 2024 | No storm report | 1,047 | 14% | 2.8 h | 5.0 h | 2.0k |
| Aug 29, 2019 | No storm report | 279 | 4% | 6.5 h | – | 1.8k |
| Feb 27, 2018 | No storm report | 341 | 4% | 5.0 h | – | 1.7k |
| Apr 11, 2019 | Windstorm | 415 | 5% | 8.8 h | 15 h | 1.6k |
| Mar 24, 2016 | Winter storm | 299 | 4% | 7.8 h | – | 1.6k |
| Jun 22, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 400 | 5% | 4.0 h | 30 min | 1.6k |
| Jul 17, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 683 | 9% | 3.0 h | 1.8 h | 1.5k |
| Feb 14, 2020 | Winter storm | 332 | 4% | 5.2 h | – | 1.5k |
| Dec 15, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 426 | 6% | 5.0 h | 11 h | 1.4k |
| Nov 10, 2020 | Ice storm | 277 | 4% | 6.2 h | – | 1.3k |
| Mar 19, 2025 | Winter storm | 832 | 11% | 7.5 h | 12 min | 1.2k |
| Mar 19, 2020 | No storm report | 394 | 5% | 9.5 h | 4.2 h | 1.1k |
| Jul 7, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 603 | 8% | 2.2 h | 30 min | 1.1k |
| Dec 20, 2017 | No storm report | 525 | 7% | 2.0 h | 12 h | 1.0k |
| Mar 13, 2016 | No storm report | 1,015 | 13% | 1.8 h | 1.5 h | 1.0k |
| Apr 12, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 247 | 3% | 6.5 h | – | 994 |
| Nov 10, 2020 | Ice storm | 96 | 1% | 11 h | – | 968 |
| Aug 2, 2016 | No storm report | 390 | 5% | 2.2 h | 2.2 h | 878 |
| Sep 18, 2019 | No storm report | 753 | 10% | 1.2 h | 30 min | 823 |
| Feb 19, 2018 | No storm report | 204 | 3% | 5.2 h | – | 816 |
| Mar 10, 2019 | No storm report | 356 | 5% | 2.8 h | – | 798 |
| Feb 17, 2020 | No storm report | 392 | 5% | 2.0 h | 6.5 h | 762 |
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 Kossuth from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 61%
- Winter storm 28%
- Thunderstorms 5.8%
- Ice storm 3.4%
- Windstorm 2.2%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Kossuth
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 |
| City of Algona | IA | – | – | – | 14.3 | 28k |
| Midland Power Coop | Cooperative | 488 | 91 | 1.79 | 13.7 | 12k |
| Iowa Lakes Electric Coop | Cooperative | 55 | 54 | 0.44 | 13.8 | 9.8k |
| City of West Bend | IA | – | – | – | – | 6.1k |
| Bancroft Municipal Utilities | IA | – | – | – | – | 5.5k |
| Heartland Power Coop | Cooperative | 117 | 67 | 0.92 | 12.8 | 4.4k |
| Prairie Energy Coop | Cooperative | 428 | 121 | 3.11 | 14.1 | 3.4k |
| City of Whittemore | IA | – | – | – | – | 2.3k |
| City of Burt | IA | – | – | – | – | 1.9k |
| Federated Rural Electric Assn | Cooperative | – | – | – | 12.9 | 53 |
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
- Hancock 5.5 h
- Wright 5.4 h
- Winnebago 4.5 h
- Humboldt 3.3 h
- Pocahontas 2.8 h
- Palo Alto 2.0 h
- Kossuth (this county) 1.6 h
- Faribault, MN 1.1 h
- Emmet 0.6 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 7,698 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 →