Power outage history
Dukes County Massachusetts
5.3hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
7th most of 14 in Massachusetts 19% 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 Dukes's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2018 was the worst well-recorded year, at 15 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Dukes, 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 27, 2021 | Tropical Storm Wanda | 13,854 | 66% | 34 h | 32 h | 185k |
| Mar 2, 2018 | Windstorm | 15,182 | 73% | 2.2 d | 21 h | 156k |
| Mar 13, 2018 | Winter storm | 11,371 | 55% | 2.4 d | 30 h | 150k |
| Oct 28, 2021 | No storm report | 3,240 | 16% | 47 h | 47 h | 72k |
| Oct 17, 2019 | Windstorm | 10,264 | 49% | 27 h | 11 h | 58k |
| Jan 29, 2022 | Winter storm | 3,641 | 17% | 30 h | 28 h | 53k |
| Feb 9, 2017 | Winter storm | 6,988 | 33% | 25 h | 11 h | 33k |
| Feb 15, 2023 | No storm report | 9,667 | 46% | 2.0 h | 5.0 h | 17k |
| Oct 30, 2017 | Windstorm | 3,959 | 19% | 14 h | 4.2 h | 14k |
| Jun 28, 2015 | Windstorm | 7,886 | 38% | 3.8 h | 48 min | 14k |
| Jul 26, 2024 | No storm report | 2,130 | 10% | 6.0 h | 5.2 h | 13k |
| Feb 13, 2024 | Winter storm | 1,901 | 9% | 11 h | 11 h | 10k |
| Aug 21, 2024 | No storm report | 12,883 | 62% | 48 min | 48 min | 9.7k |
| Jan 27, 2022 | No storm report | 12,987 | 62% | 1.0 h | 48 min | 7.2k |
| Jul 10, 2025 | No storm report | 10,157 | 49% | 1.0 h | 48 min | 6.4k |
| Dec 25, 2017 | Windstorm | 2,295 | 11% | 3.0 h | 2.0 h | 5.8k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | No storm report | 5,063 | 24% | 2.0 h | 3.5 h | 5.8k |
| Jun 26, 2024 | No storm report | 2,449 | 12% | 2.0 h | 1.5 h | 4.5k |
| Sep 18, 2022 | No storm report | 4,928 | 24% | 3.0 h | 3.0 h | 4.3k |
| Jan 23, 2016 | Winter storm | 2,651 | 13% | 3.2 h | 30 min | 4.3k |
| Aug 1, 2020 | No storm report | 1,473 | 7% | 3.0 h | 3.2 h | 4.0k |
| Apr 15, 2023 | No storm report | 277 | 1% | 15 h | – | 4.0k |
| Feb 3, 2023 | No storm report | 879 | 4% | 7.0 h | – | 3.6k |
| Jan 23, 2016 | Winter storm | 2,021 | 10% | 3.2 h | 1.8 h | 3.5k |
| Apr 26, 2018 | No storm report | 5,075 | 24% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 3.3k |
| Apr 30, 2023 | No storm report | 4,095 | 20% | 48 min | 1.2 h | 3.1k |
| May 31, 2025 | Windstorm | 1,125 | 5% | 3.5 h | 1.5 h | 3.0k |
| Sep 10, 2017 | No storm report | 1,674 | 8% | 1.5 h | 1.5 h | 2.5k |
| Dec 4, 2023 | No storm report | 4,620 | 22% | 30 min | 30 min | 2.3k |
| Nov 5, 2017 | No storm report | 2,288 | 11% | 1.0 h | 1.0 h | 2.3k |
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 Dukes from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Windstorm 27%
- Winter storm 26%
- No storm on record 24%
- Tropical storm 23%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Dukes
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Massachusetts territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSTAR Electric Company | Investor Owned | 113 | 66 | 0.81 | 21.5 | 1.3M |
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
- Barnstable 21 h
- Dukes (this county) 5.3 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 20,864 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 →