Power outage history
Monroe County Alabama
11hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
20th most of 60 in Alabama 1.7× 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 Monroe'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 2.4 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Monroe, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 28, 2020 | Hurricane Zeta | 5,909 | 56% | 5.0 d | 3.9 d | 300k |
| Sep 15, 2020 | Hurricane Sally | 6,793 | 65% | 4.9 d | 2.4 d | 245k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 3,427 | 33% | 16 h | 11 h | 16k |
| Mar 13, 2020 | No storm report | 165 | 2% | 3.4 d | – | 11k |
| Mar 4, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 1,276 | 12% | 23 h | 14 h | 8.6k |
| Jun 18, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 2,169 | 21% | 9.5 h | 8.0 h | 8.6k |
| Jun 16, 2023 | No storm report | 652 | 6% | 23 h | 22 h | 8.3k |
| Jan 8, 2024 | No storm report | 967 | 9% | 18 h | 12 h | 7.8k |
| May 10, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 653 | 6% | 16 h | 20 h | 6.7k |
| Jul 12, 2018 | No storm report | 3,039 | 29% | 3.5 h | 6.2 h | 6.2k |
| Apr 24, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 1,549 | 15% | 13 h | 10 h | 6.1k |
| Mar 15, 2025 | No storm report | 1,193 | 11% | 19 h | 2.2 h | 5.9k |
| Jul 12, 2020 | No storm report | 1,931 | 18% | 8.5 h | 6.0 h | 5.8k |
| Jun 28, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 1,752 | 17% | 9.5 h | 6.2 h | 5.6k |
| Mar 17, 2021 | No storm report | 972 | 9% | 16 h | 12 h | 5.0k |
| May 17, 2020 | No storm report | 3,096 | 29% | 1.8 h | 1.5 h | 4.7k |
| Jun 26, 2018 | No storm report | 2,985 | 28% | 1.2 h | 1.0 h | 3.0k |
| Apr 19, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 1,061 | 10% | 5.0 h | 3.8 h | 2.8k |
| Jan 11, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 1,063 | 10% | 4.0 h | 1.0 h | 2.7k |
| Dec 14, 2022 | No storm report | 436 | 4% | 11 h | – | 2.7k |
| Apr 5, 2022 | Tornadoes | 454 | 4% | 9.2 h | – | 2.6k |
| Jun 22, 2023 | No storm report | 532 | 5% | 5.8 h | 5.5 h | 2.6k |
| Dec 28, 2024 | Tornadoes | 437 | 4% | 8.8 h | – | 2.5k |
| Dec 21, 2019 | No storm report | 849 | 8% | 8.2 h | 7.8 h | 2.3k |
| Dec 29, 2025 | No storm report | 262 | 2% | 11 h | – | 2.3k |
| Jan 21, 2017 | No storm report | 718 | 7% | 4.8 h | 4.0 h | 2.1k |
| Dec 3, 2022 | No storm report | 411 | 4% | 5.0 h | – | 2.0k |
| May 14, 2024 | No storm report | 376 | 4% | 8.8 h | – | 1.9k |
| Nov 27, 2020 | No storm report | 548 | 5% | 3.5 h | 1.8 h | 1.9k |
| Nov 21, 2023 | No storm report | 440 | 4% | 9.2 h | – | 1.8k |
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 Monroe from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 68%
- No storm on record 23%
- Thunderstorms 7.7%
- Tornadoes 0.6%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Monroe
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Alabama territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama Power Co | Investor Owned | 410 | 108 | 2.06 | 17.9 | 1.3M |
| Pioneer Electric Coop, Inc | AL | 227 | 227 | 2.21 | 16.4 | 146k |
| Baldwin County El Member Corp | Cooperative | 46 | 24 | 1.50 | 14.2 | 85k |
| Southern Pine Elec Coop, Inc | Cooperative | – | – | – | 14.6 | 21k |
| Clarke-Washington E M C | Cooperative | – | – | – | 15.9 | 19k |
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 10,522 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 →