Power outage history
Washington County Alabama
2.1hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
58th most of 60 in Alabama 67% 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 Washington'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 9.8 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Washington, 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 28, 2020 | Hurricane Zeta | 561 | 7% | 6.9 d | 3.0 d | 61k |
| Jan 8, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 434 | 6% | 23 h | 20 h | 5.6k |
| Sep 16, 2020 | Hurricane Sally | 211 | 3% | 28 h | – | 4.0k |
| Mar 4, 2025 | No storm report | 145 | 2% | 22 h | – | 2.5k |
| Sep 4, 2018 | Tropical Storm Gordon | 260 | 3% | 9.8 h | – | 2.4k |
| Sep 17, 2020 | Hurricane Sally | 161 | 2% | 22 h | – | 2.3k |
| Jun 16, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 383 | 5% | 5.0 h | – | 1.5k |
| Apr 12, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 170 | 2% | 8.5 h | – | 1.4k |
| Jun 14, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 161 | 2% | 8.5 h | – | 1.4k |
| Dec 28, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 176 | 2% | 7.0 h | – | 1.1k |
| May 10, 2024 | No storm report | 166 | 2% | 6.5 h | – | 1.1k |
| Dec 9, 2017 | Winter storm | 102 | 1% | 10 h | – | 1.0k |
| Jul 31, 2020 | No storm report | 173 | 2% | 5.8 h | – | 980 |
| May 17, 2018 | No storm report | 205 | 3% | 5.2 h | – | 906 |
| Jul 8, 2022 | No storm report | 171 | 2% | 5.2 h | – | 898 |
| Sep 18, 2020 | No storm report | 120 | 2% | 7.0 h | – | 840 |
| Jun 28, 2018 | No storm report | 246 | 3% | 5.8 h | – | 834 |
| Mar 17, 2021 | No storm report | 88 | 1% | 9.5 h | – | 820 |
| Jul 13, 2020 | No storm report | 165 | 2% | 6.2 h | – | 806 |
| Jun 7, 2025 | No storm report | 138 | 2% | 5.8 h | – | 772 |
| Aug 8, 2022 | No storm report | 161 | 2% | 4.5 h | – | 724 |
| Apr 14, 2018 | Flooding | 182 | 2% | 4.0 h | – | 685 |
| Nov 4, 2020 | No storm report | 92 | 1% | 7.2 h | – | 660 |
| Apr 15, 2018 | Flooding | 170 | 2% | 4.0 h | – | 631 |
| Jul 5, 2021 | No storm report | 164 | 2% | 3.8 h | – | 615 |
| Apr 1, 2021 | No storm report | 178 | 2% | 3.5 h | – | 599 |
| Jun 7, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 250 | 3% | 2.5 h | – | 583 |
| Sep 2, 2024 | No storm report | 83 | 1% | 6.8 h | – | 560 |
| Nov 13, 2024 | No storm report | 83 | 1% | 6.2 h | – | 519 |
| Feb 4, 2024 | No storm report | 84 | 1% | 6.0 h | – | 504 |
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 Washington from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 67%
- No storm on record 21%
- Thunderstorms 11%
- Flooding 1.2%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Washington
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 |
| Black Warrior Elec Member Corp | Cooperative | – | – | – | 15.1 | 20k |
| Clarke-Washington E M C | Cooperative | – | – | – | 15.9 | 19k |
| 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
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 7,878 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 →