Power outage history
Lee County Illinois
4.8hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
47th most of 101 in Illinois 28% 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 Lee's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2023 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.
Lee, 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 31, 2023 | Tornadoes | 8,782 | 34% | 2.0 d | 48 h | 278k |
| Aug 10, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 5,925 | 23% | 3.6 d | 2.1 d | 179k |
| Dec 28, 2015 | Ice storm | 4,559 | 18% | 33 h | 21 h | 95k |
| Aug 11, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 9,310 | 36% | 19 h | 6.2 h | 74k |
| Feb 11, 2019 | Ice storm | 5,849 | 23% | 48 h | 30 h | 69k |
| Jun 23, 2015 | No storm report | 2,530 | 10% | 28 h | 25 h | 59k |
| Jul 28, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 9,505 | 37% | 20 h | 14 h | 53k |
| Jul 28, 2023 | Heat | 3,551 | 14% | 14 h | 12 h | 27k |
| Jun 22, 2015 | Tornadoes | 3,335 | 13% | 12 h | 18 h | 22k |
| May 17, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 2,730 | 11% | 17 h | 14 h | 19k |
| May 14, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 1,784 | 7% | 12 h | 12 h | 14k |
| Jan 6, 2021 | No storm report | 5,619 | 22% | 24 h | 30 min | 11k |
| May 28, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 2,736 | 11% | 6.0 h | 5.5 h | 9.7k |
| May 20, 2024 | No storm report | 7,859 | 31% | 1.5 h | 1.0 h | 8.8k |
| Jul 19, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 940 | 4% | 17 h | – | 7.9k |
| Mar 5, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,250 | 5% | 12 h | – | 6.6k |
| Aug 28, 2018 | No storm report | 1,425 | 6% | 7.0 h | 6.0 h | 6.6k |
| Dec 30, 2020 | Winter storm | 893 | 3% | 14 h | – | 5.7k |
| Dec 15, 2021 | Windstorm | 897 | 4% | 13 h | – | 5.7k |
| Dec 23, 2015 | No storm report | 2,827 | 11% | 2.0 h | 1.0 h | 5.6k |
| Aug 19, 2015 | No storm report | 3,266 | 13% | 2.0 h | 30 min | 5.0k |
| Jul 23, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 688 | 3% | 9.8 h | – | 4.5k |
| Apr 4, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 3,531 | 14% | 6.5 h | 4.0 h | 4.3k |
| Aug 1, 2015 | No storm report | 1,814 | 7% | 4.5 h | 3.5 h | 4.3k |
| Jun 23, 2015 | Tornadoes | 2,660 | 10% | 3.5 h | 13 h | 3.9k |
| Jul 21, 2017 | No storm report | 1,974 | 8% | 3.5 h | 2.5 h | 3.7k |
| Apr 5, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 742 | 3% | 5.8 h | – | 3.5k |
| Jun 17, 2015 | No storm report | 1,332 | 5% | 4.0 h | 5.0 h | 3.4k |
| Sep 29, 2025 | No storm report | 8,245 | 32% | 1.0 h | 48 min | 3.4k |
| May 15, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 1,264 | 5% | 5.0 h | – | 3.2k |
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 Lee from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 43%
- Tornadoes 34%
- No storm on record 9.7%
- Ice storm 8.4%
- Heat 3.4%
- Winter storm 1.3%
- Windstorm 1.1%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Lee
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 |
| Rochelle Municipal Utilities | Municipal | 90 | – | 0.33 | 13.1 | 6.0k |
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 25,665 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 →