Power outage history
Norfolk County Massachusetts
4.9hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
8th most of 14 in Massachusetts 25% 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 Norfolk'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 11 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Norfolk, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2, 2018 | Windstorm | 68,310 | 21% | 3.2 d | 2.5 d | 2.5M |
| Oct 26, 2021 | Tropical Storm Wanda | 126,740 | 39% | 36 h | 32 h | 1.7M |
| Dec 18, 2023 | Windstorm | 55,159 | 17% | 2.4 d | 44 h | 1.3M |
| Oct 28, 2021 | No storm report | 23,696 | 7% | 47 h | 2.1 d | 636k |
| Mar 7, 2018 | Winter storm | 32,225 | 10% | 40 h | 28 h | 574k |
| Oct 7, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 43,408 | 13% | 34 h | 27 h | 525k |
| Feb 5, 2016 | Winter storm | 29,814 | 9% | 34 h | 24 h | 459k |
| Oct 30, 2017 | Windstorm | 21,309 | 7% | 35 h | 33 h | 446k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Windstorm | 25,668 | 8% | 30 h | 26 h | 354k |
| Aug 4, 2020 | Hurricane Isaias | 18,934 | 6% | 26 h | 22 h | 319k |
| Dec 19, 2025 | Windstorm | 29,004 | 9% | 22 h | 19 h | 274k |
| Feb 7, 2020 | Windstorm | 18,762 | 6% | 15 h | 14 h | 187k |
| Oct 17, 2019 | Windstorm | 14,721 | 5% | 25 h | 29 h | 160k |
| Sep 30, 2020 | Windstorm | 19,623 | 6% | 12 h | 9.2 h | 123k |
| Mar 13, 2018 | Winter storm | 10,656 | 3% | 18 h | 14 h | 114k |
| Nov 30, 2020 | Windstorm | 8,724 | 3% | 10 h | 9.8 h | 48k |
| Feb 15, 2021 | No storm report | 8,307 | 3% | 9.5 h | 9.5 h | 39k |
| Feb 25, 2019 | Windstorm | 7,720 | 2% | 7.0 h | 15 h | 27k |
| Apr 3, 2016 | Winter storm | 8,325 | 3% | 5.0 h | 8.5 h | 25k |
| Mar 2, 2021 | Windstorm | 6,109 | 2% | 5.2 h | 5.0 h | 24k |
| Nov 12, 2017 | No storm report | 5,464 | 2% | 4.5 h | 4.8 h | 22k |
| Nov 3, 2023 | No storm report | 10,685 | 3% | 2.2 h | 2.0 h | 19k |
| Feb 1, 2021 | Winter storm | 8,537 | 3% | 3.0 h | 13 h | 19k |
| Aug 14, 2025 | No storm report | 12,840 | 4% | 1.5 h | 48 min | 17k |
| Oct 30, 2020 | Hurricane Zeta | 9,593 | 3% | 2.5 h | 1.8 h | 16k |
| Jul 26, 2022 | No storm report | 11,039 | 3% | 2.0 h | 1.8 h | 15k |
| Apr 15, 2021 | No storm report | 5,840 | 2% | 2.8 h | 2.8 h | 15k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Flooding | 5,504 | 2% | 3.2 h | 15 h | 14k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Windstorm | 4,507 | 1% | 3.8 h | – | 13k |
| Nov 3, 2018 | Windstorm | 5,320 | 2% | 2.8 h | 3.5 h | 12k |
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 Norfolk from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Windstorm 55%
- Tropical storm 22%
- No storm on record 9.7%
- Winter storm 7.6%
- Thunderstorms 5.9%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Norfolk
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 |
| Town of Braintree | Municipal | 72 | 4 | 1.28 | 16.2 | 14k |
| City of Norwood | Municipal | 117 | 34 | 1.70 | 17.6 | 14k |
| Town of Wellesley | Municipal | 41 | – | 0.24 | 16.0 | 9.3k |
| Massachusetts Bay Trans Authority | Political Subdivision | – | – | – | – | – |
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
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 326,357 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 →