Power outage history
Madison County Illinois
4.5hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
49th most of 101 in Illinois 31% 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 Madison'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 9.1 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Madison, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 30, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 18,539 | 17% | 3.1 d | 47 h | 537k |
| May 16, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 18,731 | 17% | 2.1 d | 45 h | 430k |
| Jun 28, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 21,165 | 20% | 48 h | 14 h | 235k |
| May 7, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 19,695 | 18% | 27 h | 16 h | 143k |
| Jul 29, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 14,623 | 14% | 17 h | 9.8 h | 99k |
| Dec 10, 2021 | Tornadoes | 11,767 | 11% | 11 h | 6.5 h | 97k |
| Jun 17, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 11,430 | 11% | 26 h | 15 h | 95k |
| Jul 15, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 10,333 | 10% | 23 h | 22 h | 83k |
| Jul 13, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 7,602 | 7% | 24 h | 25 h | 72k |
| Aug 12, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 7,943 | 7% | 14 h | 12 h | 67k |
| Feb 24, 2016 | No storm report | 8,725 | 8% | 11 h | 7.0 h | 53k |
| Mar 14, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 5,130 | 5% | 15 h | 17 h | 41k |
| Mar 14, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 9,744 | 9% | 4.2 h | 3.8 h | 36k |
| Apr 18, 2024 | Tornadoes | 5,855 | 5% | 12 h | 11 h | 35k |
| Mar 31, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 6,555 | 6% | 14 h | 14 h | 30k |
| Jul 21, 2025 | No storm report | 7,226 | 7% | 5.2 h | 3.8 h | 28k |
| Jan 17, 2020 | No storm report | 3,588 | 3% | 12 h | – | 27k |
| Feb 2, 2022 | Winter storm | 7,326 | 7% | 8.2 h | 48 min | 26k |
| Mar 22, 2022 | No storm report | 6,021 | 6% | 5.2 h | 1.5 h | 26k |
| Aug 3, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 5,669 | 5% | 9.5 h | 8.8 h | 25k |
| Jul 14, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 4,476 | 4% | 9.5 h | – | 25k |
| Jul 17, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 3,641 | 3% | 8.8 h | – | 22k |
| Aug 12, 2021 | Heat | 4,817 | 4% | 6.5 h | – | 21k |
| May 28, 2024 | No storm report | 9,463 | 9% | 2.5 h | 2.2 h | 21k |
| Mar 18, 2021 | No storm report | 7,670 | 7% | 3.5 h | 1.2 h | 18k |
| Aug 12, 2016 | No storm report | 2,052 | 2% | 10 h | – | 16k |
| Jun 25, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 12,267 | 11% | 3.0 h | 1.5 h | 16k |
| Jun 26, 2021 | No storm report | 3,568 | 3% | 5.5 h | – | 15k |
| May 14, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 2,966 | 3% | 7.0 h | – | 14k |
| Mar 24, 2019 | No storm report | 5,574 | 5% | 3.2 h | 2.0 h | 14k |
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 Madison from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 68%
- No storm on record 24%
- Tornadoes 5.1%
- Winter storm 1.4%
- Heat 0.9%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Madison
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Illinois territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ameren Illinois Company | Investor Owned | 287 | 130 | 1.19 | 16.7 | 1.1M |
| M J M Electric Cooperative Inc | IL | 1,945 | 440 | – | 15.4 | 113k |
| Clinton County Elec Coop, Inc | IL | – | – | – | 12.7 | 77k |
| City of Highland | IL | 35 | 30 | 0.40 | 11.9 | 68k |
| Southwestern Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 241 | 195 | 1.92 | 15.4 | 24k |
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
- St. Louis, MO 25 h
- Bond 5.9 h
- St. Clair 5.3 h
- Clinton 5.0 h
- Macoupin 5.0 h
- Madison (this county) 4.5 h
- Montgomery 4.5 h
- St. Louis, MO 3.8 h
- Jersey 3.3 h
- St. Charles, MO 2.0 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 107,855 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 →