Power outage history
Fairfield County Connecticut
11hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
3rd most of 8 in Connecticut 1.7× 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 Fairfield'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 2.5 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Fairfield, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 4, 2020 | Hurricane Isaias | 190,956 | 61% | 7.4 d | 5.7 d | 18M |
| Mar 7, 2018 | Winter storm | 64,829 | 21% | 3.1 d | 2.1 d | 1.7M |
| Mar 2, 2018 | Windstorm | 22,736 | 7% | 2.5 d | 2.4 d | 824k |
| May 18, 2018 | No storm report | 21,493 | 7% | 3.2 d | 3.3 d | 818k |
| May 15, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 47,402 | 15% | 14 h | 10 h | 597k |
| Oct 29, 2017 | Windstorm | 20,551 | 7% | 46 h | 45 h | 450k |
| Jun 23, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 33,904 | 11% | 28 h | 26 h | 395k |
| Feb 24, 2016 | Windstorm | 17,699 | 6% | 39 h | 6.2 h | 329k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Windstorm | 19,111 | 6% | 34 h | 36 h | 313k |
| Aug 3, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 16,665 | 5% | 33 h | 4.0 h | 280k |
| Nov 15, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 18,449 | 6% | 24 h | 25 h | 234k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | Ice storm | 9,412 | 3% | 34 h | 31 h | 211k |
| Dec 18, 2023 | Windstorm | 13,994 | 5% | 18 h | 27 h | 138k |
| Dec 25, 2020 | Windstorm | 12,463 | 4% | 22 h | 4.0 h | 131k |
| Sep 1, 2021 | Hurricane Ida | 9,453 | 3% | 20 h | 23 h | 123k |
| Oct 16, 2019 | Windstorm | 11,751 | 4% | 19 h | 21 h | 101k |
| Oct 31, 2019 | Windstorm | 10,660 | 3% | 19 h | 20 h | 96k |
| Feb 10, 2018 | No storm report | 24,796 | 8% | 7.8 h | 8.5 h | 78k |
| Aug 13, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 14,902 | 5% | 8.2 h | 9.2 h | 72k |
| Apr 24, 2016 | No storm report | 8,621 | 3% | 8.8 h | 9.2 h | 71k |
| Apr 23, 2016 | No storm report | 12,605 | 4% | 4.8 h | 5.0 h | 59k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Windstorm | 10,321 | 3% | 10 h | 18 h | 55k |
| Sep 6, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 14,006 | 5% | 5.8 h | 7.2 h | 51k |
| Aug 9, 2024 | Hurricane Debby | 7,031 | 2% | 11 h | 20 h | 45k |
| Apr 25, 2016 | No storm report | 8,621 | 3% | 5.0 h | 30 min | 43k |
| Sep 4, 2018 | No storm report | 13,051 | 4% | 5.5 h | 3.0 h | 43k |
| Feb 25, 2019 | Windstorm | 7,624 | 2% | 8.0 h | 6.8 h | 38k |
| Mar 4, 2019 | Winter storm | 6,220 | 2% | 7.8 h | 11 h | 35k |
| Jun 30, 2021 | No storm report | 11,230 | 4% | 5.8 h | 6.5 h | 29k |
| Sep 30, 2020 | No storm report | 8,146 | 3% | 5.8 h | 9.5 h | 29k |
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 Fairfield from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 74%
- Winter storm 7.3%
- Windstorm 7.1%
- Thunderstorms 5.2%
- No storm on record 5.2%
- Ice storm 0.9%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Fairfield
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Connecticut territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connecticut Light & Power Co | Investor Owned | 217 | 85 | 1.00 | 28.9 | 1.2M |
| United Illuminating Co | Investor Owned | 73 | 39 | 0.66 | 35.4 | 315k |
| City of South Norwalk | CT | – | – | – | 15.3 | 41k |
| Norwalk Third Taxing District | CT | – | – | – | 17.3 | 27k |
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
- Putnam, NY 25 h
- Litchfield 13 h
- Dutchess, NY 12 h
- Fairfield (this county) 11 h
- Westchester, NY 9.2 h
- New Haven 5.7 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 310,526 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 →