Power outage history
Hampden County Massachusetts
5.8hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
4th most of 14 in Massachusetts 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 Hampden'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 14 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Hampden, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 4, 2020 | Hurricane Isaias | 56,663 | 29% | 3.3 d | 2.6 d | 2.0M |
| Jun 9, 2023 | No storm report | 20,147 | 10% | 3.0 d | 2.1 d | 1.4M |
| Oct 30, 2017 | Windstorm | 20,329 | 10% | 25 h | 22 h | 349k |
| Oct 7, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 30,367 | 15% | 28 h | 23 h | 327k |
| Sep 22, 2022 | No storm report | 6,105 | 3% | 27 h | 26 h | 162k |
| Oct 16, 2019 | Windstorm | 10,791 | 5% | 20 h | 20 h | 138k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Windstorm | 7,276 | 4% | 13 h | 15 h | 53k |
| May 3, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 6,145 | 3% | 8.5 h | 20 h | 33k |
| Mar 14, 2023 | Winter storm | 8,700 | 4% | 7.5 h | 12 h | 32k |
| Mar 31, 2020 | No storm report | 9,423 | 5% | 3.2 h | 8.2 h | 30k |
| Jul 11, 2024 | No storm report | 4,432 | 2% | 11 h | – | 29k |
| Mar 2, 2021 | Windstorm | 3,884 | 2% | 12 h | – | 28k |
| Jun 22, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 4,435 | 2% | 6.0 h | – | 22k |
| Sep 5, 2025 | No storm report | 5,528 | 3% | 4.0 h | 1.0 h | 22k |
| Feb 25, 2019 | Windstorm | 6,161 | 3% | 3.8 h | 13 h | 20k |
| Aug 12, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 6,978 | 4% | 6.2 h | 6.8 h | 18k |
| Nov 1, 2019 | Windstorm | 6,537 | 3% | 11 h | 7.2 h | 18k |
| Dec 18, 2023 | No storm report | 3,944 | 2% | 5.5 h | – | 17k |
| Dec 5, 2020 | Winter storm | 4,084 | 2% | 5.5 h | – | 16k |
| Feb 16, 2023 | No storm report | 6,811 | 3% | 4.2 h | 1.0 h | 15k |
| Jul 1, 2018 | No storm report | 5,858 | 3% | 2.8 h | 4.8 h | 12k |
| Feb 17, 2022 | No storm report | 4,301 | 2% | 2.8 h | – | 12k |
| Oct 13, 2022 | No storm report | 4,707 | 2% | 4.2 h | – | 12k |
| Dec 13, 2023 | No storm report | 4,229 | 2% | 4.0 h | – | 11k |
| Jul 12, 2024 | No storm report | 3,991 | 2% | 3.2 h | – | 10k |
| Jul 27, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 3,933 | 2% | 3.8 h | – | 10k |
| Jan 17, 2021 | No storm report | 5,947 | 3% | 1.8 h | 2.0 h | 9.6k |
| Mar 16, 2022 | No storm report | 16,400 | 8% | 48 min | 48 min | 9.0k |
| Aug 19, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 2,546 | 1% | 3.8 h | – | 9.0k |
| Feb 18, 2022 | Windstorm | 2,955 | 2% | 3.8 h | – | 8.9k |
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 Hampden from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 43%
- No storm on record 40%
- Thunderstorms 9.7%
- Windstorm 6.1%
- Winter storm 1.0%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Hampden
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 |
| Massachusetts Electric Co | Investor Owned | 133 | 91 | 1.00 | 33.7 | 1.2M |
| City of Chicopee | Municipal | 12 | – | 0.10 | 16.2 | 23k |
| City of Westfield | Municipal | 194 | 52 | 1.85 | 18.5 | 16k |
| City of Holyoke | Municipal | 37 | 37 | 0.46 | 16.4 | 15k |
| Town of Chester | MA | – | – | – | – | 4.1k |
| City of Russell | MA | – | – | – | – | 3.3k |
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
- Litchfield, CT 13 h
- Tolland, CT 8.5 h
- Hampden (this county) 5.8 h
- Worcester 4.0 h
- Hartford, CT 3.9 h
- Berkshire 3.3 h
- Hampshire 2.9 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 196,656 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 →