Power outage history
Hillsborough County Florida
6.6hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
42nd most of 67 in Florida close to 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 Hillsborough'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 37 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Hillsborough, 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, 2024 | Hurricane Milton | 520,308 | 52% | 42 h | 5.2 h | 20M |
| Sep 10, 2017 | Hurricane Irma | 257,105 | 26% | 5.9 d | 3.7 d | 18M |
| Oct 12, 2024 | No storm report | 345,794 | 35% | 17 h | 4.2 h | 4.6M |
| Sep 29, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 157,513 | 16% | 3.0 d | 8.5 h | 4.3M |
| Oct 12, 2024 | No storm report | 420,870 | 42% | 10 h | 10 h | 4.1M |
| Sep 28, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 217,144 | 22% | 15 h | 30 min | 2.9M |
| Oct 13, 2024 | No storm report | 216,096 | 22% | 20 h | 1.2 h | 2.6M |
| Oct 15, 2024 | No storm report | 92,478 | 9% | 43 h | 12 min | 1.8M |
| Oct 9, 2024 | Hurricane Milton | 416,117 | 42% | 8.8 h | 12 min | 939k |
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 93,657 | 9% | 7.2 h | 2.5 h | 438k |
| Sep 26, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 92,108 | 9% | 8.5 h | 12 min | 434k |
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 33,617 | 3% | 22 h | 30 min | 385k |
| Sep 1, 2016 | Hurricane Hermine | 26,300 | 3% | 4.8 h | 17 h | 90k |
| Sep 2, 2016 | Hurricane Hermine | 17,884 | 2% | 8.0 h | 18 h | 82k |
| Nov 10, 2022 | Hurricane Nicole | 20,940 | 2% | 6.8 h | 11 h | 77k |
| Apr 27, 2023 | No storm report | 15,953 | 2% | 3.8 h | 6.5 h | 52k |
| Oct 15, 2024 | No storm report | 87,345 | 9% | 30 min | 30 min | 43k |
| Jul 7, 2021 | Hurricane Elsa | 11,846 | 1% | 3.8 h | 13 h | 43k |
| Jul 31, 2016 | No storm report | 19,888 | 2% | 2.0 h | 1.5 h | 32k |
| Aug 5, 2024 | Hurricane Debby | 11,814 | 1% | 2.2 h | 9.0 h | 25k |
| Feb 6, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 13,652 | 1% | 1.8 h | 4.2 h | 21k |
| Jul 14, 2024 | No storm report | 15,021 | 2% | 1.2 h | 4.2 h | 17k |
| Sep 28, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 21,168 | 2% | 1.0 h | 1.2 h | 16k |
| Oct 17, 2024 | No storm report | 10,575 | 1% | 2.5 h | 13 h | 16k |
| Nov 13, 2016 | No storm report | 16,617 | 2% | 2.8 h | 48 min | 14k |
| May 8, 2015 | No storm report | 15,634 | 2% | 1.0 h | 30 min | 14k |
| Jul 14, 2022 | No storm report | 11,448 | 1% | 2.2 h | 4.2 h | 13k |
| Aug 7, 2018 | No storm report | 13,967 | 1% | 1.2 h | 5.0 h | 13k |
| May 27, 2020 | No storm report | 16,420 | 2% | 48 min | 30 min | 12k |
| Sep 28, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 19,852 | 2% | 48 min | 12 min | 11k |
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 Hillsborough from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 69%
- No storm on record 31%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Hillsborough
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duke Energy Florida, LLC | Investor Owned | 87 | 82 | 0.97 | 18.4 | 1.8M |
| Tampa Electric Co | Investor Owned | 112 | 79 | 1.85 | 17.3 | 769k |
| Peace River Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 155 | 155 | 1.62 | 12.8 | 62k |
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.
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 998,906 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 →