Power outage history
Iron County Michigan
12hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
47th most of 83 in Michigan 1.9× 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 Iron's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2022 was the worst well-recorded year, at 24 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Iron, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 15, 2021 | Windstorm | 4,599 | 78% | 3.4 d | 9.0 h | 99k |
| Nov 26, 2025 | Winter storm | 2,034 | 35% | 2.5 d | 47 h | 68k |
| May 9, 2022 | Windstorm | 2,920 | 50% | 38 h | 24 h | 56k |
| Jun 15, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 3,571 | 61% | 2.2 d | 33 h | 46k |
| Dec 28, 2025 | Winter storm | 2,508 | 43% | 44 h | 23 h | 27k |
| Jul 27, 2023 | No storm report | 1,403 | 24% | 24 h | 14 h | 24k |
| Apr 10, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 1,381 | 23% | 26 h | 20 h | 17k |
| Jul 26, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 546 | 9% | 2.4 d | 35 h | 17k |
| Mar 7, 2017 | No storm report | 1,062 | 18% | 39 h | 34 h | 15k |
| Oct 17, 2022 | Winter storm | 1,810 | 31% | 45 h | 3.5 h | 13k |
| Mar 30, 2025 | Winter storm | 766 | 13% | 20 h | 18 h | 8.9k |
| Jun 21, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 1,885 | 32% | 13 h | 5.8 h | 8.4k |
| Mar 30, 2025 | Winter storm | 890 | 15% | 16 h | 11 h | 7.7k |
| Nov 18, 2015 | No storm report | 1,595 | 27% | 11 h | 5.8 h | 6.5k |
| Aug 9, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 250 | 4% | 42 h | – | 6.3k |
| Nov 11, 2024 | Windstorm | 1,619 | 27% | 14 h | 12 min | 6.0k |
| Apr 30, 2023 | Winter storm | 818 | 14% | 21 h | 3.0 h | 5.9k |
| Jul 13, 2016 | No storm report | 1,032 | 18% | 6.0 h | 4.8 h | 5.7k |
| Aug 3, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 589 | 10% | 16 h | 12 h | 5.5k |
| Dec 26, 2016 | Winter storm | 393 | 7% | 16 h | 12 h | 4.3k |
| Sep 22, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 1,520 | 26% | 13 h | 4.5 h | 3.9k |
| Jul 21, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 1,470 | 25% | 20 h | 9.0 h | 3.7k |
| Jun 29, 2023 | No storm report | 1,199 | 20% | 4.5 h | 4.5 h | 3.4k |
| Jun 11, 2017 | Flooding | 137 | 2% | 26 h | – | 3.2k |
| Sep 8, 2025 | No storm report | 2,280 | 39% | 1.5 h | 2.5 h | 3.0k |
| Aug 21, 2020 | No storm report | 876 | 15% | 5.5 h | 1.8 h | 2.9k |
| Apr 30, 2022 | No storm report | 1,181 | 20% | 2.2 h | 2.0 h | 2.5k |
| Aug 28, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 886 | 15% | 6.8 h | 4.5 h | 2.5k |
| Jun 11, 2021 | No storm report | 1,925 | 33% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 2.3k |
| May 17, 2017 | No storm report | 255 | 4% | 16 h | – | 2.2k |
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 Iron from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Windstorm 33%
- Winter storm 28%
- No storm on record 21%
- Thunderstorms 18%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Iron
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Michigan territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upper Peninsula Power Company | Investor Owned | 446 | 190 | 2.20 | 28.0 | 48k |
| Upper Michigan Energy Resources Corp. | Investor Owned | 1,249 | 240 | 2.46 | 17.5 | 33k |
| City of Crystal Falls | Municipal | – | – | – | 19.2 | 1.5k |
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
- Vilas, WI 44 h
- Forest, WI 26 h
- Gogebic 15 h
- Florence, WI 14 h
- Iron (this county) 12 h
- Dickinson 8.7 h
- Ontonagon 6.4 h
- Marquette 4.7 h
- Baraga 4.3 h
- Houghton 2.9 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 5,890 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 →