Power outage history
Harlan County Kentucky
8.3hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
58th most of 119 in Kentucky 1.3× 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 Harlan'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 20 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Harlan, 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 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 5,286 | 39% | 4.3 d | 2.8 d | 181k |
| May 17, 2025 | No storm report | 5,681 | 41% | 2.5 d | 34 h | 65k |
| Jun 17, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,820 | 13% | 47 h | 40 h | 29k |
| May 26, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 2,055 | 15% | 2.1 d | 43 h | 28k |
| Apr 4, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 2,723 | 20% | 18 h | 16 h | 26k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | Windstorm | 1,869 | 14% | 32 h | 29 h | 22k |
| May 20, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 1,532 | 11% | 33 h | 48 min | 15k |
| Sep 17, 2025 | No storm report | 838 | 6% | 18 h | 25 h | 13k |
| Feb 10, 2018 | Flooding | 840 | 6% | 22 h | 11 h | 13k |
| Jul 22, 2018 | No storm report | 1,996 | 15% | 8.5 h | 5.0 h | 12k |
| Dec 11, 2021 | Windstorm | 1,991 | 15% | 19 h | 9.0 h | 11k |
| Feb 7, 2021 | Winter storm | 1,527 | 11% | 14 h | 11 h | 10k |
| Jun 23, 2016 | No storm report | 1,951 | 14% | 14 h | 10 h | 9.8k |
| May 1, 2017 | No storm report | 1,975 | 14% | 8.2 h | 6.8 h | 9.8k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | No storm report | 1,522 | 11% | 23 h | 12 h | 8.8k |
| Apr 12, 2020 | Windstorm | 901 | 7% | 23 h | 9.5 h | 8.4k |
| Aug 26, 2016 | No storm report | 542 | 4% | 16 h | – | 8.2k |
| May 2, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 974 | 7% | 13 h | 13 h | 7.6k |
| Jun 16, 2016 | No storm report | 3,460 | 25% | 3.5 h | 3.5 h | 7.3k |
| Jun 18, 2025 | No storm report | 5,451 | 40% | 2.2 h | 4.2 h | 6.8k |
| Mar 3, 2023 | Windstorm | 415 | 3% | 19 h | – | 6.3k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | No storm report | 917 | 7% | 18 h | 5.5 h | 6.2k |
| Dec 24, 2020 | Winter storm | 886 | 6% | 11 h | 15 h | 5.9k |
| Mar 28, 2021 | Flooding | 1,319 | 10% | 4.5 h | 9.8 h | 5.9k |
| Jul 29, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 933 | 7% | 18 h | 22 h | 5.7k |
| May 7, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 1,050 | 8% | 12 h | 12 h | 5.4k |
| Jan 18, 2016 | No storm report | 1,548 | 11% | 7.0 h | 7.0 h | 5.1k |
| Dec 12, 2019 | No storm report | 1,521 | 11% | 3.8 h | 2.2 h | 4.9k |
| Nov 23, 2019 | No storm report | 1,042 | 8% | 5.2 h | 12 min | 4.8k |
| Feb 17, 2023 | No storm report | 2,434 | 18% | 2.5 h | 1.2 h | 4.5k |
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 Harlan from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 44%
- Tropical storm 25%
- Thunderstorms 19%
- Windstorm 7.1%
- Flooding 2.7%
- Winter storm 2.5%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Harlan
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Kentucky territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kentucky Utilities Co | Investor Owned | 197 | 89 | 1.14 | 11.9 | 454k |
| Cumberland Valley Electric, Inc. | Cooperative | 910 | 437 | 4.22 | 13.1 | 23k |
| Tri-County Elec Member Corp (TN) | Cooperative | 528 | 239 | 3.91 | 13.1 | 21k |
| City of Benham | KY | – | – | – | – | 3.8k |
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 13,700 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 →