Power Out Map
– 0% of Butler out 0 customers out in Iowa

Power outage history

Butler County Iowa

6.2hours

without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025

20th most of 98 in Iowa close to the national median

Worst outage on record Jul 29, 2025 80% of customers out · 90% back in 20 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 6.2h / yr State average 5.4 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 3.9 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 2hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 2.3days Jun 3, 2023, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 60% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2025 14 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 4,791 ORNL customer model · 8 well-covered years

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 Butler's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.

20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
0%100% of customers out

Year by year

Hours in the dark, per customer

2025 was the worst well-recorded year, at 14 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Butler, hours without power per customer

ButlerUS median countyIowa average
0 5 10 15 20 0.6 ’15 2.9 ’16 7.2 ’17 4.5 ’18 2.9 ’19 2.4 ’20 8.5 ’21 3.0 ’22 5.2 ’23 8.5 ’24 14 ’25 US 6.6 IA 5.4

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 29, 2025 Thunderstorms 3,840 80% 32 h 20 h 52k
May 17, 2017 Thunderstorms 2,237 47% 43 h 22 h 20k
May 21, 2024 Thunderstorms 3,026 63% 19 h 5.2 h 14k
Dec 11, 2021 No storm report 1,928 40% 14 h 6.0 h 13k
Dec 15, 2021 Tornadoes 1,709 36% 20 h 9.5 h 12k
Mar 24, 2018 Winter storm 1,170 24% 14 h 9.5 h 8.0k
May 24, 2024 Thunderstorms 2,464 51% 7.0 h 2.5 h 6.2k
Dec 14, 2021 No storm report 1,692 35% 3.0 h 4.2 h 5.1k
Feb 23, 2019 Winter storm 846 18% 13 h 1.8 h 3.9k
Sep 17, 2017 No storm report 1,670 35% 2.2 h 2.0 h 3.5k
Sep 22, 2016 Flooding 2,279 48% 1.8 h 1.0 h 3.4k
Jun 3, 2023 No storm report 62 1% 2.3 d – 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.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100% peak+24h+48h+72h+96h half back by +4h 90% by +6h

When it happens

The outage clock

Customer-hours out by month (rings, January innermost) and local hour, 2018–2025.

00061218 Jan inside

What was happening

Weather behind the outages

Each outage is matched to NOAA storm reports for Butler from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • Thunderstorms 45%
  • No storm on record 40%
  • Winter storm 7.2%
  • Tornadoes 6.4%
  • Windstorm 1.0%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Butler

As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Iowa territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.

Utility Type Outage min / yr Excl. major storms Outages / yr Residential ¢/kWh Customers
MidAmerican Energy Co Investor Owned 205 82 1.19 11.2 640k
Interstate Power and Light Co Investor Owned 89 74 0.82 17.8 419k
Franklin Rural Electric Coop IA 178 178 1.48 12.7 31k
Grundy County Rural Elec Coop IA 62 62 0.86 14.1 28k
Cedar Falls Utilities Municipal 37 – 0.54 11.6 18k
City of Aplington IA – – – – 4.9k
Butler County Rural Elec Coop Cooperative 97 85 1.45 14.5 3.9k

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.

Next door

Neighbouring counties

Across Iowa

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Iowa 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 4,791 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 →