Power outage history
DeKalb County Georgia
5.5hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
108th most of 156 in Georgia 16% 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 DeKalb'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 13 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
DeKalb, 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 11, 2017 | Hurricane Irma | 176,310 | 49% | 4.2 d | 2.8 d | 6.6M |
| Oct 29, 2020 | Hurricane Zeta | 139,779 | 39% | 3.5 d | 2.1 d | 3.2M |
| Sep 26, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 50,614 | 14% | 46 h | 30 h | 814k |
| Aug 7, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 69,184 | 19% | 28 h | 24 h | 711k |
| Jun 25, 2023 | No storm report | 66,499 | 18% | 25 h | 20 h | 661k |
| Mar 21, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 75,787 | 21% | 29 h | 20 h | 639k |
| Jan 10, 2025 | No storm report | 28,060 | 8% | 21 h | 15 h | 340k |
| Mar 30, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 36,805 | 10% | 20 h | 19 h | 225k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 35,434 | 10% | 13 h | 12 h | 217k |
| Mar 12, 2022 | No storm report | 29,861 | 8% | 15 h | 12 h | 170k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | No storm report | 29,835 | 8% | 13 h | 9.0 h | 142k |
| Jun 7, 2025 | No storm report | 16,684 | 5% | 14 h | 15 h | 120k |
| Sep 16, 2020 | Hurricane Sally | 12,061 | 3% | 18 h | 15 h | 118k |
| Apr 10, 2024 | No storm report | 21,167 | 6% | 11 h | 12 h | 109k |
| Aug 18, 2016 | No storm report | 18,318 | 5% | 8.8 h | 8.8 h | 97k |
| Jul 27, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 19,859 | 5% | 6.5 h | 8.0 h | 96k |
| Jul 20, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 26,889 | 7% | 8.2 h | 8.5 h | 93k |
| Jul 7, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 11,864 | 3% | 14 h | 18 h | 90k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | Windstorm | 11,534 | 3% | 8.5 h | 13 h | 71k |
| Jun 24, 2019 | No storm report | 14,416 | 4% | 10 h | 15 h | 66k |
| Jul 6, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 21,442 | 6% | 12 h | 5.0 h | 65k |
| Jul 30, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 18,807 | 5% | 5.5 h | 5.2 h | 64k |
| Aug 1, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 14,839 | 4% | 7.0 h | 13 h | 57k |
| Feb 24, 2016 | No storm report | 10,474 | 3% | 14 h | 12 h | 56k |
| Dec 9, 2017 | Winter storm | 7,638 | 2% | 8.5 h | 13 h | 51k |
| Aug 3, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 21,152 | 6% | 4.5 h | 4.2 h | 50k |
| Jan 16, 2022 | Winter storm | 8,871 | 2% | 7.8 h | 10 h | 49k |
| Jul 11, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 18,224 | 5% | 5.0 h | 8.2 h | 45k |
| Aug 17, 2024 | No storm report | 11,137 | 3% | 5.2 h | 9.8 h | 43k |
| Aug 18, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 13,803 | 4% | 6.2 h | 7.8 h | 42k |
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 DeKalb from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 48%
- No storm on record 30%
- Thunderstorms 20%
- Windstorm 0.8%
- Winter storm 0.6%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving DeKalb
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia Power Co | Investor Owned | 287 | 155 | 1.83 | 16.3 | 2.5M |
| Walton Electric Member Corp | Cooperative | 307 | 164 | 2.65 | 14.1 | 134k |
| Snapping Shoals El Member Corp | Cooperative | 175 | 100 | 1.45 | 13.0 | 106k |
| City of Norcross | GA | – | – | – | 11.6 | 53k |
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 361,541 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 →