Power outage history
Linn County Iowa
18hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
3rd most of 98 in Iowa 2.8× 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 Linn'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 5.7 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Linn, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 10, 2020 | Tornadoes | 109,389 | 93% | 14.1 d | 8.5 d | 16M |
| Jul 28, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 30,010 | 25% | 23 h | 14 h | 178k |
| Jul 11, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 19,584 | 17% | 13 h | 9.8 h | 95k |
| Dec 7, 2024 | No storm report | 4,162 | 4% | 16 h | – | 29k |
| Jul 15, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 8,629 | 7% | 5.5 h | 5.0 h | 26k |
| Mar 31, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 8,162 | 7% | 7.2 h | 8.2 h | 25k |
| May 22, 2025 | No storm report | 1,450 | 1% | 11 h | – | 15k |
| Jun 6, 2023 | No storm report | 4,474 | 4% | 4.2 h | – | 15k |
| Dec 15, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 6,359 | 5% | 3.2 h | 3.0 h | 14k |
| Nov 3, 2020 | No storm report | 6,825 | 6% | 2.0 h | 1.0 h | 13k |
| Jul 5, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 7,585 | 6% | 2.5 h | 2.2 h | 12k |
| Sep 6, 2020 | No storm report | 4,237 | 4% | 7.2 h | – | 11k |
| Feb 1, 2015 | Winter storm | 4,710 | 4% | 3.8 h | – | 9.9k |
| Jul 11, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 4,043 | 3% | 5.5 h | – | 9.3k |
| Jul 10, 2016 | No storm report | 8,006 | 7% | 1.2 h | 1.0 h | 9.1k |
| Feb 2, 2016 | No storm report | 5,085 | 4% | 2.5 h | 1.5 h | 8.6k |
| Aug 6, 2018 | No storm report | 7,754 | 7% | 2.0 h | 1.8 h | 8.5k |
| May 22, 2015 | No storm report | 7,658 | 6% | 1.2 h | 1.8 h | 8.0k |
| Jun 30, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 3,825 | 3% | 3.5 h | – | 7.9k |
| Jun 23, 2023 | No storm report | 2,603 | 2% | 5.0 h | – | 7.6k |
| Jul 29, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 3,072 | 3% | 2.8 h | – | 7.4k |
| Nov 19, 2019 | No storm report | 3,648 | 3% | 2.8 h | – | 7.3k |
| Jun 15, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 6,148 | 5% | 2.8 h | 3.2 h | 7.1k |
| Jul 21, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 2,938 | 2% | 2.8 h | – | 7.1k |
| May 7, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 3,332 | 3% | 3.0 h | – | 7.1k |
| Mar 25, 2017 | No storm report | 4,084 | 3% | 1.8 h | – | 7.0k |
| Jul 6, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 3,175 | 3% | 3.0 h | – | 6.9k |
| May 23, 2019 | No storm report | 4,204 | 4% | 2.0 h | – | 6.8k |
| Jun 7, 2015 | No storm report | 5,348 | 5% | 2.2 h | 30 min | 6.7k |
| Mar 13, 2019 | No storm report | 2,211 | 2% | 3.5 h | – | 6.5k |
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 Linn from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tornadoes 96%
- Thunderstorms 2.4%
- No storm on record 1.9%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Linn
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interstate Power and Light Co | Investor Owned | 89 | 74 | 0.82 | 17.8 | 419k |
| Corridor Energy Cooperative | Cooperative | 135 | 135 | 1.77 | 14.2 | 31k |
| Eastern Iowa Light & Power Coop | Cooperative | 92 | 79 | 0.93 | 14.8 | 20k |
| Maquoketa Valley Rrl Elec Coop | Cooperative | 138 | 63 | 1.03 | 13.8 | 11k |
| East-Central Iowa Rural Elec Coop | Cooperative | 67 | 67 | 0.88 | 13.1 | 7.4k |
| City of Coggon | IA | – | – | – | – | 4.0k |
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 118,247 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 →