Power outage history
Houston County Alabama
3.6hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
49th most of 60 in Alabama 45% 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 Houston's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2018 was the worst well-recorded year, at 20 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Houston, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 10, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 23,059 | 32% | 7.0 d | 5.0 d | 1.3M |
| Jun 14, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 7,579 | 10% | 19 h | 15 h | 70k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 4,336 | 6% | 18 h | 17 h | 34k |
| Apr 24, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 6,175 | 9% | 11 h | 9.8 h | 30k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 3,042 | 4% | 9.8 h | – | 19k |
| Aug 16, 2021 | Tropical Storm Fred | 2,256 | 3% | 11 h | – | 15k |
| Jun 15, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 1,349 | 2% | 12 h | – | 13k |
| May 26, 2023 | No storm report | 7,142 | 10% | 2.5 h | 1.2 h | 12k |
| Aug 18, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 7,743 | 11% | 4.0 h | 4.0 h | 11k |
| Oct 9, 2025 | No storm report | 3,183 | 4% | 3.2 h | – | 8.8k |
| Jun 29, 2024 | No storm report | 9,944 | 14% | 48 min | 12 min | 6.7k |
| Dec 29, 2024 | No storm report | 1,055 | 1% | 6.8 h | – | 6.6k |
| Dec 23, 2015 | No storm report | 1,741 | 2% | 3.8 h | – | 5.8k |
| Nov 7, 2022 | No storm report | 3,544 | 5% | 1.8 h | – | 5.7k |
| May 10, 2024 | Tornadoes | 2,611 | 4% | 2.2 h | – | 4.9k |
| Sep 11, 2017 | Hurricane Irma | 1,714 | 2% | 4.2 h | – | 4.8k |
| Feb 6, 2020 | No storm report | 1,974 | 3% | 3.2 h | – | 4.5k |
| Jul 9, 2017 | No storm report | 1,129 | 2% | 4.2 h | – | 4.2k |
| May 22, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,806 | 2% | 2.8 h | – | 4.0k |
| Dec 8, 2020 | No storm report | 792 | 1% | 5.0 h | – | 4.0k |
| May 17, 2020 | No storm report | 2,636 | 4% | 1.5 h | – | 4.0k |
| Jul 31, 2018 | No storm report | 1,790 | 2% | 2.0 h | – | 3.4k |
| Jan 14, 2025 | No storm report | 970 | 1% | 3.5 h | – | 3.4k |
| Jul 7, 2022 | No storm report | 782 | 1% | 4.0 h | – | 3.1k |
| Feb 5, 2025 | No storm report | 1,259 | 2% | 2.5 h | – | 3.0k |
| Feb 12, 2021 | No storm report | 830 | 1% | 3.8 h | – | 2.9k |
| Jul 22, 2020 | No storm report | 1,201 | 2% | 3.0 h | – | 2.7k |
| Jun 17, 2023 | No storm report | 1,196 | 2% | 2.5 h | – | 2.7k |
| Sep 13, 2024 | No storm report | 1,779 | 2% | 1.5 h | – | 2.7k |
| Jul 22, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 1,135 | 2% | 2.5 h | – | 2.6k |
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 Houston from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 81%
- Thunderstorms 11%
- No storm on record 7.4%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Houston
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Alabama territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama Power Co | Investor Owned | 410 | 108 | 2.06 | 17.9 | 1.3M |
| City of Dothan | Municipal | 83 | 67 | 0.74 | 10.7 | 27k |
| Wiregrass Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 111 | 94 | 1.53 | 16.0 | 23k |
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
- Jackson, FL 17 h
- Henry 9.7 h
- Geneva 8.1 h
- Seminole, GA 7.8 h
- Houston (this county) 3.6 h
- Dale 3.2 h
- Early, GA 2.8 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 72,388 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 →