Power outage history
Chatham County Georgia
12hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
56th most of 156 in Georgia 1.9× 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 Chatham'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 2.9 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Chatham, 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 | 118,846 | 83% | 8.0 d | 5.6 d | 9.4M |
| Oct 8, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 114,943 | 80% | 5.1 d | 4.1 d | 7.1M |
| Sep 11, 2017 | Hurricane Irma | 76,043 | 53% | 4.6 d | 3.0 d | 3.0M |
| Oct 7, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 141,489 | 98% | 24 h | 18 h | 1.9M |
| Sep 2, 2016 | Hurricane Hermine | 47,986 | 33% | 2.3 d | 32 h | 1.0M |
| Aug 30, 2023 | Hurricane Idalia | 37,181 | 26% | 2.1 d | 30 h | 647k |
| Apr 25, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 18,135 | 13% | 26 h | 23 h | 160k |
| Sep 4, 2019 | Hurricane Dorian | 15,373 | 11% | 24 h | 10 h | 142k |
| Jul 7, 2021 | Hurricane Elsa | 11,528 | 8% | 19 h | 18 h | 113k |
| Aug 5, 2024 | Hurricane Debby | 6,773 | 5% | 23 h | 17 h | 98k |
| Oct 11, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 7,761 | 5% | 19 h | 21 h | 78k |
| Aug 8, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 12,653 | 9% | 21 h | 19 h | 72k |
| Jun 17, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 13,350 | 9% | 8.5 h | 6.5 h | 46k |
| Apr 19, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 9,980 | 7% | 7.2 h | 6.8 h | 41k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | No storm report | 7,764 | 5% | 7.2 h | 6.8 h | 40k |
| Jul 17, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 11,748 | 8% | 8.2 h | 4.2 h | 39k |
| Sep 29, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 9,340 | 7% | 9.2 h | 9.2 h | 38k |
| Apr 25, 2023 | No storm report | 6,239 | 4% | 7.2 h | 9.0 h | 37k |
| Apr 6, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 7,040 | 5% | 11 h | 12 h | 30k |
| Jul 1, 2020 | No storm report | 5,719 | 4% | 6.0 h | 5.5 h | 27k |
| Dec 17, 2023 | No storm report | 5,733 | 4% | 8.2 h | 8.2 h | 26k |
| Jun 28, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 7,532 | 5% | 5.0 h | 4.2 h | 25k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | Windstorm | 5,779 | 4% | 7.2 h | 7.0 h | 21k |
| Jul 31, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 6,802 | 5% | 4.2 h | 5.5 h | 18k |
| Jun 9, 2025 | No storm report | 5,178 | 4% | 5.2 h | 11 h | 18k |
| Apr 20, 2025 | No storm report | 4,953 | 3% | 3.5 h | – | 17k |
| Aug 22, 2015 | No storm report | 6,543 | 5% | 4.2 h | 5.8 h | 16k |
| Jul 15, 2025 | No storm report | 5,453 | 4% | 8.2 h | 15 h | 16k |
| Apr 30, 2023 | No storm report | 3,931 | 3% | 5.8 h | – | 16k |
| Mar 12, 2022 | Windstorm | 4,973 | 3% | 4.5 h | – | 15k |
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 Chatham from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 91%
- No storm on record 5.5%
- Thunderstorms 3.1%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Chatham
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Georgia territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canoochee Electric Member Corp | Cooperative | – | – | – | 14.2 | 25k |
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
- Effingham 13 h
- Chatham (this county) 12 h
- Bryan 9.5 h
- Jasper, SC 8.1 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 143,708 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 →