Power outage history
Adams County Wisconsin
2.8hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
41st most of 72 in Wisconsin 58% 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 Adams'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 5.9 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Adams, 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 | 9,123 | 44% | 19 h | 14 h | 95k |
| Aug 28, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 4,393 | 21% | 43 h | 40 h | 82k |
| Jun 3, 2017 | No storm report | 596 | 3% | 2.1 d | – | 19k |
| Dec 15, 2022 | Winter storm | 2,755 | 13% | 18 h | 5.0 h | 18k |
| Jun 15, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,615 | 8% | 23 h | 23 h | 15k |
| Aug 16, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 743 | 4% | 18 h | – | 8.1k |
| Oct 15, 2015 | No storm report | 1,204 | 6% | 6.5 h | 5.5 h | 5.5k |
| Dec 15, 2021 | Windstorm | 1,525 | 7% | 9.8 h | 8.0 h | 5.3k |
| Jul 13, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 935 | 5% | 11 h | – | 5.1k |
| Jun 2, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 1,178 | 6% | 5.0 h | 3.0 h | 4.8k |
| May 17, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 1,094 | 5% | 6.0 h | 5.0 h | 4.7k |
| Jul 1, 2020 | No storm report | 827 | 4% | 5.2 h | – | 4.3k |
| Feb 26, 2023 | No storm report | 891 | 4% | 4.2 h | – | 3.8k |
| Jul 11, 2017 | No storm report | 1,176 | 6% | 5.0 h | 2.8 h | 3.4k |
| Sep 13, 2025 | No storm report | 1,520 | 7% | 2.0 h | 1.0 h | 3.0k |
| Nov 30, 2024 | No storm report | 593 | 3% | 5.0 h | – | 3.0k |
| May 3, 2025 | No storm report | 1,616 | 8% | 2.0 h | 48 min | 2.8k |
| Oct 23, 2017 | No storm report | 1,426 | 7% | 2.0 h | 3.0 h | 2.7k |
| May 22, 2019 | No storm report | 931 | 4% | 4.5 h | – | 2.6k |
| Jan 21, 2025 | Winter storm | 1,010 | 5% | 2.5 h | – | 2.5k |
| Jan 30, 2022 | No storm report | 559 | 3% | 4.5 h | – | 2.5k |
| Jan 8, 2019 | No storm report | 896 | 4% | 2.8 h | – | 2.4k |
| Apr 14, 2018 | Winter storm | 831 | 4% | 5.8 h | – | 2.4k |
| Jul 27, 2019 | No storm report | 1,008 | 5% | 2.2 h | – | 2.3k |
| Jun 23, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 631 | 3% | 4.5 h | – | 2.2k |
| Oct 20, 2021 | No storm report | 498 | 2% | 4.5 h | – | 2.2k |
| Dec 7, 2023 | No storm report | 1,489 | 7% | 1.5 h | 2.0 h | 2.2k |
| Oct 31, 2024 | No storm report | 265 | 1% | 8.2 h | – | 2.2k |
| Jun 27, 2019 | No storm report | 1,451 | 7% | 2.0 h | 1.5 h | 2.2k |
| May 2, 2025 | No storm report | 845 | 4% | 2.5 h | – | 2.0k |
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 Adams from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 60%
- No storm on record 31%
- Winter storm 7.2%
- Windstorm 1.5%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Adams
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 |
| Adams-Columbia Electric Coop | Cooperative | 108 | 66 | 0.87 | 19.0 | 36k |
| Wisconsin Dells Electric Util | WI | – | – | – | – | 12k |
| Pioneer Power and Light Co | Investor Owned | – | – | – | 16.8 | 2.0k |
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 20,787 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 →