Power outage history
Cape Girardeau County Missouri
3.9hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
73rd most of 110 in Missouri 40% 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 Cape Girardeau'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 12 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Cape Girardeau, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 5, 2025 | Ice storm | 7,864 | 23% | 4.0 d | 21 h | 244k |
| Jun 21, 2019 | Flooding | 4,851 | 14% | 44 h | 30 h | 79k |
| Apr 2, 2025 | No storm report | 2,883 | 8% | 3.0 d | 27 h | 51k |
| Jun 26, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 4,350 | 13% | 13 h | 11 h | 34k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Winter storm | 3,265 | 9% | 20 h | 18 h | 34k |
| May 26, 2024 | Flooding | 3,207 | 9% | 19 h | 12 h | 28k |
| Mar 14, 2025 | Windstorm | 3,262 | 9% | 20 h | 18 h | 24k |
| Jun 28, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 3,058 | 9% | 19 h | 17 h | 24k |
| Jul 1, 2023 | Heat | 2,441 | 7% | 18 h | 19 h | 17k |
| Jul 17, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 3,440 | 10% | 11 h | 11 h | 17k |
| Jun 28, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 3,682 | 11% | 7.8 h | 3.0 h | 15k |
| Apr 2, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 2,500 | 7% | 17 h | 15 h | 15k |
| Apr 7, 2025 | No storm report | 4,958 | 14% | 6.0 h | 4.2 h | 13k |
| Jul 6, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 4,796 | 14% | 7.8 h | 3.5 h | 12k |
| May 16, 2025 | Tornadoes | 5,127 | 15% | 6.0 h | 1.0 h | 12k |
| Mar 1, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 3,061 | 9% | 9.0 h | 7.2 h | 11k |
| Jan 10, 2020 | Tornadoes | 3,366 | 10% | 10 h | 6.0 h | 11k |
| Jul 17, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,762 | 5% | 9.5 h | 16 h | 10k |
| Jan 25, 2023 | Winter storm | 621 | 2% | 20 h | – | 9.2k |
| Apr 21, 2017 | No storm report | 2,156 | 6% | 4.0 h | 30 min | 8.6k |
| Mar 14, 2024 | No storm report | 5,255 | 15% | 3.0 h | 48 min | 7.6k |
| Mar 29, 2018 | No storm report | 1,926 | 6% | 5.8 h | 2.5 h | 5.8k |
| Nov 23, 2017 | No storm report | 3,965 | 12% | 1.5 h | 12 min | 5.8k |
| May 20, 2025 | Tornadoes | 1,962 | 6% | 6.0 h | 8.5 h | 5.5k |
| Jan 16, 2020 | Flooding | 2,872 | 8% | 1.8 h | 1.5 h | 5.0k |
| Jul 26, 2016 | No storm report | 819 | 2% | 9.2 h | – | 4.8k |
| Feb 24, 2022 | Winter storm | 1,049 | 3% | 7.8 h | – | 4.5k |
| Nov 17, 2021 | No storm report | 3,011 | 9% | 1.5 h | 1.2 h | 4.5k |
| May 27, 2022 | No storm report | 2,948 | 9% | 1.5 h | 1.2 h | 4.4k |
| Jul 20, 2015 | Heat | 1,360 | 4% | 3.2 h | – | 4.3k |
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 Cape Girardeau from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Ice storm 30%
- No storm on record 21%
- Flooding 16%
- Thunderstorms 15%
- Winter storm 6.4%
- Heat 4.0%
- Windstorm 3.8%
- Tornadoes 3.5%
- Tropical storm 0.7%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Cape Girardeau
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Missouri territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Union Electric Co | Investor Owned | 594 | 119 | 1.18 | 13.3 | 1.1M |
| City of Jackson | MO | 22 | – | 1.29 | 12.1 | 75k |
| Citizens Electric Corporation | Cooperative | 1,688 | 128 | 3.86 | 15.2 | 25k |
| Black River Electric Coop | Cooperative | 2,909 | 564 | – | 13.6 | 22k |
| SEMO Electric Cooperative | Cooperative | 822 | 607 | 2.58 | 13.5 | 11k |
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
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 34,407 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 →