Power outage history
Mobile County Alabama
20hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
10th most of 60 in Alabama 3.0× 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 Mobile's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2020 was the worst well-recorded year, at 4.3 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Mobile, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 15, 2020 | Hurricane Sally | 110,135 | 100% | 5.2 d | 3.4 d | 6.1M |
| Oct 28, 2020 | Hurricane Zeta | 110,135 | 100% | 7.0 d | 3.6 d | 4.3M |
| Sep 4, 2018 | Tropical Storm Gordon | 24,425 | 22% | 23 h | 17 h | 306k |
| Jan 8, 2024 | Tornadoes | 17,553 | 16% | 25 h | 14 h | 199k |
| May 10, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 24,719 | 22% | 20 h | 13 h | 192k |
| Apr 24, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 19,712 | 18% | 17 h | 14 h | 161k |
| Jun 7, 2020 | Tropical Storm Cristobal | 16,818 | 15% | 27 h | 16 h | 128k |
| May 13, 2024 | No storm report | 8,963 | 8% | 27 h | 8.8 h | 79k |
| Mar 30, 2022 | Tornadoes | 11,707 | 11% | 18 h | 16 h | 69k |
| Jun 17, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 8,105 | 7% | 19 h | 14 h | 68k |
| Apr 18, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 7,311 | 7% | 18 h | 16 h | 64k |
| Apr 10, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 11,268 | 10% | 13 h | 10 h | 56k |
| Aug 30, 2021 | Hurricane Ida | 9,447 | 9% | 13 h | 3.5 h | 53k |
| Jun 27, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 14,546 | 13% | 10 h | 8.0 h | 50k |
| Jun 16, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 11,651 | 11% | 8.5 h | 7.0 h | 48k |
| Apr 17, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 11,829 | 11% | 9.2 h | 6.5 h | 44k |
| May 12, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 10,552 | 10% | 13 h | 5.8 h | 35k |
| May 17, 2024 | No storm report | 3,394 | 3% | 11 h | – | 34k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | No storm report | 6,354 | 6% | 11 h | 11 h | 30k |
| Apr 14, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 9,013 | 8% | 6.8 h | 3.5 h | 29k |
| Sep 11, 2024 | Hurricane Francine | 4,332 | 4% | 14 h | – | 29k |
| Jul 11, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 4,911 | 4% | 9.5 h | – | 26k |
| May 27, 2020 | No storm report | 8,419 | 8% | 6.2 h | 5.2 h | 26k |
| Apr 15, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 5,954 | 5% | 7.2 h | 7.5 h | 25k |
| Nov 3, 2021 | No storm report | 2,957 | 3% | 9.0 h | – | 25k |
| Jan 16, 2020 | No storm report | 11,965 | 11% | 2.0 h | 12 min | 24k |
| Apr 19, 2020 | Tornadoes | 7,062 | 6% | 5.2 h | 5.2 h | 23k |
| Sep 27, 2020 | No storm report | 3,918 | 4% | 8.2 h | – | 23k |
| May 10, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 4,413 | 4% | 8.8 h | – | 23k |
| May 25, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 4,449 | 4% | 7.8 h | – | 22k |
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 Mobile from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 79%
- No storm on record 9.8%
- Thunderstorms 7.7%
- Tornadoes 2.7%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Mobile
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 |
| Singing River Elec Cooperative | Cooperative | 1 | 1 | – | 13.5 | 336 |
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
- Greene, MS 24 h
- George, MS 24 h
- Mobile (this county) 20 h
- Baldwin 9.5 h
- Jackson, MS 8.6 h
- Washington 2.1 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 110,135 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 →