Power outage history
Sauk County Wisconsin
1.2hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
68th most of 72 in Wisconsin 82% 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 Sauk'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 1.9 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Sauk, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 28, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 9,935 | 16% | 32 h | 24 h | 90k |
| Dec 15, 2022 | Winter storm | 5,871 | 10% | 30 h | 4.0 h | 48k |
| Jun 10, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 5,532 | 9% | 4.0 h | 3.0 h | 18k |
| Jun 2, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 2,934 | 5% | 7.5 h | – | 16k |
| Jul 19, 2017 | Windstorm | 3,791 | 6% | 7.8 h | 5.0 h | 15k |
| Oct 24, 2018 | No storm report | 900 | 1% | 16 h | – | 14k |
| Jul 14, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 4,551 | 7% | 7.2 h | 15 h | 13k |
| Jun 23, 2025 | Heat | 4,932 | 8% | 6.0 h | 7.2 h | 12k |
| May 21, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 1,975 | 3% | 6.8 h | – | 8.4k |
| Dec 5, 2017 | Windstorm | 7,586 | 12% | 1.0 h | 1.0 h | 7.6k |
| Jun 14, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 3,448 | 6% | 4.0 h | 4.8 h | 7.4k |
| Oct 11, 2019 | No storm report | 4,061 | 7% | 1.8 h | 9.2 h | 6.2k |
| Jun 11, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 3,401 | 6% | 3.5 h | 1.2 h | 5.9k |
| Jul 29, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 1,572 | 3% | 4.0 h | – | 5.3k |
| Jul 20, 2017 | Flooding | 1,691 | 3% | 6.5 h | – | 5.2k |
| Jun 27, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 3,315 | 5% | 2.8 h | 2.0 h | 4.8k |
| Sep 28, 2016 | Flooding | 1,112 | 2% | 4.0 h | – | 4.4k |
| Aug 10, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 1,272 | 2% | 3.5 h | – | 4.3k |
| Oct 6, 2025 | No storm report | 2,333 | 4% | 2.5 h | – | 4.1k |
| Jul 19, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 2,298 | 4% | 2.8 h | – | 4.0k |
| Jun 23, 2024 | No storm report | 847 | 1% | 6.2 h | – | 4.0k |
| Jul 6, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 1,005 | 2% | 4.0 h | – | 3.8k |
| Jun 24, 2025 | No storm report | 1,977 | 3% | 1.8 h | – | 3.4k |
| Jul 14, 2020 | No storm report | 1,225 | 2% | 3.0 h | – | 3.3k |
| Feb 8, 2021 | No storm report | 1,238 | 2% | 2.5 h | – | 3.1k |
| Mar 10, 2015 | No storm report | 807 | 1% | 3.8 h | – | 3.0k |
| Aug 24, 2025 | No storm report | 972 | 2% | 3.5 h | – | 2.8k |
| Jul 14, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 1,303 | 2% | 4.5 h | – | 2.7k |
| Jun 26, 2016 | No storm report | 1,198 | 2% | 2.2 h | – | 2.7k |
| May 8, 2019 | No storm report | 1,219 | 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 Sauk from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 45%
- No storm on record 33%
- Winter storm 15%
- Heat 3.8%
- Windstorm 1.3%
- Flooding 1.2%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Sauk
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Wisconsin territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wisconsin Power & Light Co | Investor Owned | 96 | 75 | 0.79 | 18.5 | 441k |
| Vernon Electric Coop | WI | 188 | 125 | – | 14.5 | 123k |
| Richland Electric Coop | WI | – | – | – | – | 37k |
| Adams-Columbia Electric Coop | Cooperative | 108 | 66 | 0.87 | 19.0 | 36k |
| Oakdale Electric Coop | Cooperative | 118 | 84 | 1.11 | 15.9 | 17k |
| Wisconsin Dells Electric Util | WI | – | – | – | – | 12k |
| Village of Sauk City | WI | – | – | – | – | 12k |
| Reedsburg Utility Comm | Municipal | – | – | – | 12.4 | 5.0k |
| Village of Prairie Du Sac | Municipal | – | – | – | 12.0 | 1.9k |
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 60,955 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 →