Power outage history
Douglas County Wisconsin
1.3hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
63rd most of 72 in Wisconsin 80% 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 Douglas's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2022 was the worst well-recorded year, at 4.5 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Douglas, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 15, 2022 | No storm report | 6,682 | 23% | 2.3 d | 40 h | 97k |
| Mar 29, 2020 | Winter storm | 1,973 | 7% | 4.5 h | 1.8 h | 8.2k |
| Jun 14, 2023 | No storm report | 3,935 | 14% | 2.0 h | 1.8 h | 7.9k |
| May 20, 2025 | No storm report | 3,762 | 13% | 2.0 h | 1.0 h | 7.5k |
| Jun 14, 2025 | No storm report | 2,955 | 10% | 2.5 h | 48 min | 7.0k |
| May 4, 2022 | No storm report | 2,782 | 10% | 4.0 h | 3.8 h | 6.3k |
| Apr 4, 2023 | Ice storm | 2,954 | 10% | 3.8 h | 1.8 h | 4.5k |
| Aug 16, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 577 | 2% | 9.0 h | – | 4.4k |
| Jun 25, 2022 | No storm report | 1,956 | 7% | 2.2 h | 13 h | 4.4k |
| Oct 13, 2023 | No storm report | 3,827 | 13% | 2.0 h | 1.5 h | 3.9k |
| Jul 3, 2017 | No storm report | 607 | 2% | 6.0 h | – | 3.6k |
| Oct 21, 2019 | No storm report | 1,489 | 5% | 2.2 h | 1.8 h | 3.3k |
| Aug 8, 2020 | No storm report | 1,037 | 4% | 3.2 h | – | 3.3k |
| Mar 10, 2019 | Winter storm | 1,819 | 6% | 2.0 h | 1.8 h | 3.3k |
| Nov 17, 2020 | No storm report | 1,828 | 6% | 4.0 h | 1.0 h | 3.2k |
| Nov 2, 2021 | No storm report | 844 | 3% | 3.8 h | – | 3.2k |
| Jun 29, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 582 | 2% | 5.8 h | – | 3.1k |
| May 1, 2018 | No storm report | 1,381 | 5% | 3.0 h | – | 3.0k |
| Jul 2, 2025 | No storm report | 1,197 | 4% | 3.0 h | – | 2.8k |
| Aug 14, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 1,090 | 4% | 3.0 h | – | 2.5k |
| Mar 25, 2019 | No storm report | 817 | 3% | 3.0 h | – | 2.5k |
| Jul 10, 2016 | No storm report | 406 | 1% | 6.2 h | – | 2.4k |
| Jun 5, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 559 | 2% | 4.5 h | – | 2.3k |
| Jul 16, 2025 | No storm report | 1,426 | 5% | 1.5 h | – | 2.1k |
| Mar 24, 2024 | Winter storm | 450 | 2% | 5.2 h | – | 1.9k |
| Feb 22, 2023 | Winter storm | 449 | 2% | 4.5 h | – | 1.9k |
| Feb 3, 2019 | No storm report | 826 | 3% | 2.2 h | – | 1.9k |
| Jun 19, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 359 | 1% | 5.0 h | – | 1.8k |
| Aug 25, 2020 | No storm report | 1,090 | 4% | 1.8 h | – | 1.7k |
| Aug 8, 2023 | No storm report | 783 | 3% | 2.2 h | – | 1.5k |
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 Douglas from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 84%
- Thunderstorms 7.4%
- Winter storm 6.8%
- Ice storm 2.0%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Douglas
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bayfield Electric Coop, Inc | WI | – | – | – | 18.6 | 70k |
| Superior Water and Light Co | Investor Owned | 25 | 10 | 0.32 | 15.8 | 13k |
| Dahlberg Light & Power Co | Investor Owned | – | – | – | 13.2 | 11k |
| East Central Energy | Cooperative | – | – | – | 17.2 | 5.2k |
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
- Pine, MN 7.2 h
- Sawyer 6.4 h
- Carlton, MN 4.6 h
- St. Louis, MN 4.1 h
- Washburn 3.9 h
- Bayfield 3.5 h
- Burnett 1.6 h
- Douglas (this county) 1.3 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 29,088 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 →