Power outage history
Lincoln County Wisconsin
12hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
9th most of 72 in Wisconsin 1.8× 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 Lincoln's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2021 was the worst well-recorded year, at 39 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Lincoln, 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 27, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 9,752 | 62% | 4.0 d | 48 h | 299k |
| Dec 15, 2021 | No storm report | 8,208 | 52% | 3.2 d | 8.2 h | 199k |
| Mar 30, 2025 | Ice storm | 3,258 | 21% | 3.1 d | 2.4 d | 132k |
| Nov 27, 2019 | Winter storm | 6,981 | 44% | 2.0 d | 28 h | 124k |
| May 22, 2019 | Windstorm | 10,080 | 64% | 27 h | 10 h | 84k |
| Jun 11, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 3,234 | 20% | 33 h | 12 h | 54k |
| Jun 10, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 4,753 | 30% | 26 h | 20 h | 53k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | Winter storm | 4,076 | 26% | 39 h | 24 h | 53k |
| Mar 6, 2017 | No storm report | 5,232 | 33% | 2.2 d | 1.0 h | 49k |
| Jul 21, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 2,835 | 18% | 32 h | 28 h | 43k |
| Apr 11, 2017 | No storm report | 6,216 | 39% | 14 h | 6.5 h | 30k |
| Jul 27, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 7,008 | 44% | 5.0 h | 15 h | 29k |
| Jun 5, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 3,041 | 19% | 24 h | 20 h | 22k |
| Dec 28, 2025 | Winter storm | 3,694 | 23% | 20 h | 2.8 h | 22k |
| Jun 22, 2015 | No storm report | 1,976 | 13% | 16 h | 24 h | 20k |
| Jun 5, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 3,247 | 21% | 15 h | 12 h | 19k |
| Jun 25, 2016 | No storm report | 7,494 | 47% | 9.0 h | 2.2 h | 19k |
| May 22, 2024 | No storm report | 1,160 | 7% | 28 h | 21 h | 18k |
| Jul 12, 2016 | No storm report | 2,310 | 15% | 13 h | 11 h | 18k |
| May 17, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 1,900 | 12% | 20 h | 14 h | 17k |
| Dec 15, 2022 | Winter storm | 1,625 | 10% | 19 h | 7.8 h | 15k |
| Jul 19, 2019 | Tornadoes | 5,688 | 36% | 8.5 h | 3.5 h | 15k |
| Jun 10, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 2,920 | 18% | 10 h | 5.5 h | 14k |
| Jun 17, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 2,394 | 15% | 8.5 h | 6.2 h | 14k |
| Feb 7, 2019 | Winter storm | 4,989 | 32% | 2.8 h | 48 min | 13k |
| Aug 14, 2015 | No storm report | 2,623 | 17% | 5.2 h | 3.5 h | 12k |
| Jul 22, 2024 | No storm report | 4,914 | 31% | 9.2 h | 1.5 h | 11k |
| Jul 13, 2015 | No storm report | 1,774 | 11% | 8.0 h | 5.8 h | 10k |
| Jul 27, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 4,282 | 27% | 2.5 h | 30 min | 9.8k |
| Jun 26, 2015 | No storm report | 3,948 | 25% | 2.2 h | 10 h | 8.9k |
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 Lincoln from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 34%
- Thunderstorms 32%
- Winter storm 18%
- Ice storm 9.5%
- Windstorm 6.0%
- Tornadoes 1.1%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Lincoln
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 Public Service Corp | Investor Owned | 630 | 107 | 1.44 | 17.2 | 416k |
| Northern States Power Co | Investor Owned | 309 | 110 | 1.15 | 15.6 | 223k |
| Taylor Electric Coop | WI | 38 | 30 | – | 14.3 | 56k |
| Price Electric Coop Inc | WI | 404 | 404 | 2.48 | 20.2 | 56k |
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 15,797 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 →