Power outage history
Plymouth County Iowa
2.0hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
79th most of 98 in Iowa 70% 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 Plymouth'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 3.3 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Plymouth, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 17, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 2,232 | 26% | 27 h | 18 h | 18k |
| Jul 30, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 1,462 | 17% | 15 h | 9.5 h | 9.8k |
| Jun 29, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 2,099 | 24% | 7.2 h | 3.2 h | 7.2k |
| Dec 15, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 1,387 | 16% | 7.8 h | 48 min | 5.9k |
| Jul 29, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 705 | 8% | 11 h | 8.5 h | 5.5k |
| May 8, 2021 | No storm report | 102 | 1% | 37 h | – | 3.3k |
| Jun 13, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 919 | 11% | 5.0 h | 2.0 h | 3.2k |
| Jan 25, 2022 | No storm report | 570 | 7% | 4.2 h | 1.2 h | 2.3k |
| May 12, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 648 | 8% | 12 h | 10 h | 2.3k |
| Mar 19, 2025 | Winter storm | 1,127 | 13% | 3.0 h | 30 min | 1.7k |
| Dec 13, 2022 | No storm report | 351 | 4% | 4.8 h | – | 1.6k |
| Sep 20, 2018 | Flooding | 659 | 8% | 2.5 h | 1.0 h | 1.5k |
| Dec 25, 2016 | Windstorm | 752 | 9% | 2.0 h | 30 min | 1.5k |
| Jun 22, 2025 | Heat | 476 | 6% | 4.2 h | 1.2 h | 1.4k |
| Oct 5, 2025 | No storm report | 703 | 8% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 1.4k |
| Jun 29, 2019 | Flooding | 306 | 4% | 4.5 h | – | 1.4k |
| Jan 22, 2018 | Winter storm | 713 | 8% | 5.2 h | 2.8 h | 1.4k |
| Jan 8, 2016 | Winter storm | 684 | 8% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 1.4k |
| Jun 29, 2016 | No storm report | 848 | 10% | 1.5 h | 30 min | 1.3k |
| Jan 4, 2020 | No storm report | 310 | 4% | 3.8 h | – | 1.2k |
| Oct 12, 2023 | Windstorm | 513 | 6% | 3.8 h | 30 min | 1.1k |
| Aug 20, 2022 | No storm report | 715 | 8% | 1.5 h | 1.2 h | 1.1k |
| Aug 21, 2017 | No storm report | 1,008 | 12% | 3.0 h | 1.5 h | 1.1k |
| Aug 18, 2025 | No storm report | 311 | 4% | 3.2 h | – | 1.0k |
| Aug 18, 2020 | No storm report | 343 | 4% | 3.5 h | – | 1.0k |
| Aug 7, 2018 | No storm report | 305 | 4% | 3.2 h | – | 988 |
| Mar 4, 2025 | Winter storm | 490 | 6% | 2.0 h | 1.0 h | 976 |
| Aug 27, 2024 | Heat | 430 | 5% | 2.2 h | 6.8 h | 968 |
| Jun 9, 2018 | No storm report | 546 | 6% | 1.8 h | 12 min | 912 |
| Aug 17, 2022 | No storm report | 715 | 8% | 1.2 h | 6.8 h | 893 |
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 Plymouth from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 47%
- Thunderstorms 33%
- Flooding 8.5%
- Winter storm 5.7%
- Heat 3.7%
- Windstorm 1.5%
- Ice storm 0.7%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Plymouth
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 |
| 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 Akron | IA | – | – | – | – | 8.5k |
| City of Remsen | IA | – | – | – | 9.3 | 8.4k |
| City of Hinton | IA | – | – | – | 9.7 | 4.6k |
| Town of Westfield | IA | – | – | – | – | 571 |
| 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.
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 8,581 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 →