Power outage history
Columbia County Florida
18hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
18th most of 67 in Florida 2.7× 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 Columbia's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2024 was the worst well-recorded year, at 3.5 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Columbia, 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 26, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 34,768 | 90% | 6.7 d | 5.1 d | 2.3M |
| Sep 10, 2017 | Hurricane Irma | 38,562 | 100% | 6.9 d | 3.6 d | 1.2M |
| Aug 30, 2023 | Hurricane Idalia | 30,854 | 80% | 3.5 d | 2.3 d | 979k |
| Aug 5, 2024 | Hurricane Debby | 20,731 | 54% | 3.4 d | 2.2 d | 679k |
| Sep 1, 2016 | Hurricane Hermine | 12,539 | 33% | 2.4 d | 40 h | 274k |
| May 10, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 14,573 | 38% | 2.5 d | 32 h | 142k |
| Feb 7, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 8,240 | 21% | 46 h | 34 h | 94k |
| Jan 3, 2018 | No storm report | 10,126 | 26% | 32 h | 18 h | 63k |
| Jul 28, 2022 | No storm report | 6,324 | 16% | 10 h | 4.5 h | 57k |
| Apr 19, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 12,844 | 33% | 22 h | 8.0 h | 49k |
| Oct 7, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 3,250 | 8% | 24 h | 12 h | 45k |
| Dec 24, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 12,414 | 32% | 14 h | 7.8 h | 43k |
| Nov 10, 2022 | Hurricane Nicole | 3,704 | 10% | 33 h | 11 h | 43k |
| Jul 7, 2021 | Hurricane Elsa | 7,265 | 19% | 15 h | 7.2 h | 36k |
| Sep 29, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 3,678 | 10% | 17 h | 6.8 h | 27k |
| Apr 17, 2020 | No storm report | 954 | 2% | 29 h | – | 27k |
| Feb 6, 2020 | No storm report | 3,599 | 9% | 22 h | 3.2 h | 24k |
| Apr 6, 2017 | No storm report | 5,533 | 14% | 9.5 h | 8.0 h | 17k |
| Aug 13, 2016 | No storm report | 6,256 | 16% | 5.8 h | 5.0 h | 17k |
| Sep 2, 2023 | No storm report | 819 | 2% | 29 h | – | 16k |
| May 20, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 4,798 | 12% | 7.8 h | 7.0 h | 14k |
| Jan 22, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 3,777 | 10% | 11 h | 8.0 h | 12k |
| Mar 19, 2019 | No storm report | 4,517 | 12% | 2.8 h | 11 h | 12k |
| Feb 6, 2021 | No storm report | 5,111 | 13% | 2.2 h | 12 min | 11k |
| Oct 9, 2024 | Hurricane Milton | 2,138 | 6% | 11 h | 3.2 h | 11k |
| Mar 12, 2022 | No storm report | 2,389 | 6% | 8.8 h | 8.5 h | 10k |
| Nov 30, 2020 | No storm report | 8,016 | 21% | 1.2 h | 1.0 h | 10k |
| Jul 22, 2018 | No storm report | 1,894 | 5% | 7.5 h | – | 9.5k |
| Jul 16, 2017 | No storm report | 3,474 | 9% | 3.0 h | 1.0 h | 9.0k |
| Aug 14, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 3,560 | 9% | 5.0 h | 4.5 h | 8.2k |
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 Columbia from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 82%
- No storm on record 12%
- Thunderstorms 5.7%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Columbia
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Florida territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida Power & Light Co | Investor Owned | 47 | 45 | 0.46 | 14.6 | 5.3M |
| Duke Energy Florida, LLC | Investor Owned | 87 | 82 | 0.97 | 18.4 | 1.8M |
| Clay Electric Cooperative, Inc | Cooperative | 205 | 205 | 2.60 | 14.0 | 174k |
| Suwannee Valley Elec Coop Inc | Cooperative | 212 | 212 | 3.24 | 17.6 | 26k |
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
- Hamilton 33 h
- Suwannee 28 h
- Gilchrist 19 h
- Columbia (this county) 18 h
- Echols, GA 15 h
- Clinch, GA 10 h
- Baker 6.8 h
- Union 5.3 h
- Alachua 3.9 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 38,562 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 →