Power outage history
Winnebago County Iowa
4.5hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
37th most of 98 in Iowa 31% 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 Winnebago's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2019 was the worst well-recorded year, at 15 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Winnebago, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 11, 2019 | Windstorm | 2,116 | 29% | 3.1 d | 2.6 d | 93k |
| Dec 15, 2021 | Tornadoes | 3,317 | 46% | 17 h | 7.8 h | 23k |
| Dec 23, 2020 | Winter storm | 2,187 | 30% | 23 h | 17 h | 17k |
| Oct 16, 2018 | No storm report | 2,028 | 28% | 3.2 h | 3.5 h | 6.6k |
| Sep 6, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 1,053 | 15% | 11 h | 10 h | 6.0k |
| May 19, 2021 | No storm report | 1,045 | 14% | 5.0 h | 5.2 h | 5.2k |
| May 3, 2022 | No storm report | 1,051 | 15% | 5.2 h | 5.5 h | 5.0k |
| Mar 24, 2018 | Winter storm | 929 | 13% | 12 h | 1.2 h | 3.8k |
| Nov 11, 2020 | No storm report | 1,504 | 21% | 4.0 h | 1.8 h | 3.5k |
| Mar 4, 2025 | Winter storm | 463 | 6% | 10 h | 2.0 h | 3.1k |
| Jan 13, 2020 | No storm report | 472 | 7% | 6.2 h | 6.2 h | 2.9k |
| Aug 27, 2020 | No storm report | 321 | 4% | 7.8 h | – | 2.5k |
| Oct 20, 2023 | No storm report | 155 | 2% | 16 h | – | 2.5k |
| Jun 25, 2016 | No storm report | 341 | 5% | 10 h | – | 2.4k |
| Mar 28, 2025 | No storm report | 653 | 9% | 3.8 h | 3.2 h | 2.4k |
| Nov 6, 2017 | No storm report | 599 | 8% | 4.0 h | 16 h | 2.3k |
| Jul 7, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 446 | 6% | 6.0 h | 3.8 h | 2.0k |
| Mar 25, 2025 | No storm report | 153 | 2% | 13 h | – | 1.9k |
| Aug 22, 2020 | No storm report | 657 | 9% | 4.2 h | 4.2 h | 1.8k |
| May 30, 2022 | No storm report | 1,768 | 25% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 1.7k |
| Mar 10, 2019 | No storm report | 870 | 12% | 2.0 h | 1.0 h | 1.7k |
| May 28, 2018 | No storm report | 385 | 5% | 4.5 h | 3.0 h | 1.7k |
| Jul 10, 2017 | No storm report | 672 | 9% | 2.5 h | 1.5 h | 1.5k |
| Oct 22, 2020 | No storm report | 321 | 4% | 4.5 h | – | 1.4k |
| Feb 23, 2024 | No storm report | 436 | 6% | 3.8 h | 2.0 h | 1.4k |
| Feb 17, 2020 | No storm report | 583 | 8% | 2.2 h | 48 min | 1.3k |
| Jul 20, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 583 | 8% | 5.2 h | 1.2 h | 1.3k |
| Jun 27, 2019 | No storm report | 569 | 8% | 5.0 h | 4.2 h | 1.2k |
| Oct 20, 2022 | No storm report | 305 | 4% | 6.8 h | – | 1.1k |
| Jun 21, 2018 | No storm report | 1,068 | 15% | 1.8 h | 1.0 h | 1.1k |
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 Winnebago from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Windstorm 42%
- No storm on record 32%
- Winter storm 11%
- Tornadoes 10%
- Thunderstorms 4.0%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Winnebago
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 |
| City of Forest City | IA | – | – | – | 10.3 | 13k |
| City of Lake Mills | IA | – | – | – | 11.6 | 8.6k |
| Heartland Power Coop | Cooperative | 117 | 67 | 0.92 | 12.8 | 4.4k |
| Prairie Energy Coop | Cooperative | 428 | 121 | 3.11 | 14.1 | 3.4k |
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
- Worth 12 h
- Hancock 5.5 h
- Winnebago (this county) 4.5 h
- Freeborn, MN 3.3 h
- Cerro Gordo 2.3 h
- Kossuth 1.6 h
- Faribault, MN 1.1 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 7,213 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 →