Power outage history
DeKalb County Illinois
1.4hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
96th most of 101 in Illinois 79% 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 DeKalb'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 2.9 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
DeKalb, 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 | Thunderstorms | 10,587 | 13% | 40 h | 18 h | 143k |
| Jul 14, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 3,832 | 5% | 46 h | – | 72k |
| Jun 14, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 4,520 | 6% | 17 h | 17 h | 39k |
| Nov 26, 2018 | Winter storm | 2,100 | 3% | 18 h | – | 28k |
| Feb 22, 2023 | Ice storm | 2,900 | 4% | 18 h | – | 23k |
| Jan 30, 2019 | Winter storm | 3,209 | 4% | 10 h | – | 20k |
| Mar 31, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 2,787 | 4% | 10 h | – | 18k |
| Aug 24, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 3,546 | 4% | 8.0 h | – | 16k |
| Apr 16, 2018 | No storm report | 3,162 | 4% | 6.0 h | – | 14k |
| Feb 19, 2016 | No storm report | 7,097 | 9% | 6.8 h | 2.5 h | 13k |
| Aug 10, 2021 | Tornadoes | 6,262 | 8% | 4.2 h | 1.8 h | 13k |
| Aug 11, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 2,296 | 3% | 6.5 h | – | 12k |
| Jul 13, 2015 | No storm report | 1,793 | 2% | 6.8 h | – | 10k |
| Jun 26, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 2,785 | 4% | 4.5 h | – | 9.6k |
| Apr 10, 2015 | Tornadoes | 4,810 | 6% | 2.0 h | 2.0 h | 8.6k |
| Jun 30, 2019 | No storm report | 2,219 | 3% | 5.8 h | – | 8.5k |
| Feb 12, 2019 | No storm report | 1,745 | 2% | 5.5 h | – | 8.0k |
| Jan 11, 2018 | No storm report | 1,566 | 2% | 5.0 h | – | 7.2k |
| Dec 28, 2015 | Ice storm | 1,648 | 2% | 7.5 h | – | 7.0k |
| Jul 28, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 1,672 | 2% | 5.0 h | – | 6.8k |
| Mar 5, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,096 | 1% | 6.2 h | – | 6.4k |
| Dec 30, 2020 | Winter storm | 1,508 | 2% | 8.0 h | – | 6.1k |
| May 27, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 1,483 | 2% | 5.0 h | – | 5.4k |
| Aug 25, 2020 | No storm report | 2,902 | 4% | 2.2 h | – | 5.2k |
| Oct 20, 2018 | Windstorm | 2,572 | 3% | 2.5 h | – | 5.0k |
| Jun 28, 2017 | No storm report | 1,551 | 2% | 4.0 h | – | 4.6k |
| Aug 28, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 888 | 1% | 4.5 h | – | 3.9k |
| Dec 11, 2021 | No storm report | 1,628 | 2% | 2.2 h | – | 3.6k |
| Aug 16, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 1,243 | 2% | 3.8 h | – | 2.5k |
| Sep 25, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 1,326 | 2% | 2.0 h | – | 2.4k |
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 DeKalb from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 65%
- No storm on record 14%
- Winter storm 12%
- Ice storm 5.5%
- Tornadoes 2.7%
- Windstorm 1.4%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving DeKalb
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Illinois territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth Edison Co | Investor Owned | 77 | 38 | 0.66 | 17.7 | 3.8M |
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 79,682 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 →