Power Out Map
– 0% of Avery out 0 customers out in North Carolina

Power outage history

Avery County North Carolina

7.1hours

without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025

61st most of 100 in North Carolina close to the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Helene · Oct 3, 2024 11% of customers out · 90% back in 9.8 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 7.1h / yr State average 8.3 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 2.4 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 3hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 16.6days Hurricane Helene, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 66% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2024 31 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 9,084 Estimated from population · 8 well-covered years

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 Avery's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.

20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
0%100% of customers out

Year by year

Hours in the dark, per customer

2024 was the worst well-recorded year, at 31 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Avery, hours without power per customer

AveryUS median countyNorth Carolina average
0 5 10 15 20 25 ’15 ’16 ’17 4.3 ’18 6.1 ’19 4.0 ’20 4.8 ’21 0.7 ’22 3.5 ’23 31 ’24 2.2 ’25 NC 8.3 US 6.6

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 26, 2024 Hurricane Helene 989 11% 16.6 d 9.8 d 254k
Aug 17, 2021 Tropical Storm Fred 1,255 14% 45 h 39 h 23k
Apr 5, 2018 No storm report 1,198 13% 17 h 17 h 20k
Dec 21, 2020 No storm report 1,202 13% 17 h 17 h 17k
Nov 1, 2019 No storm report 1,205 13% 14 h 14 h 16k
Apr 1, 2023 No storm report 909 10% 22 h 5.8 h 14k
Feb 25, 2019 Windstorm 961 11% 17 h 17 h 11k
Aug 25, 2021 No storm report 1,218 13% 6.8 h 8.5 h 8.2k
Feb 12, 2025 Winter storm 909 10% 11 h 8.0 h 8.2k
Feb 13, 2019 No storm report 702 8% 12 h 11 h 7.0k
Dec 10, 2017 No storm report 1,194 13% 5.0 h 48 min 6.0k
Jun 22, 2019 No storm report 1,048 12% 15 h 2.5 h 5.2k

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.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100% peak+24h+48h+72h+96h half back by +12h 90% by +18h

When it happens

The outage clock

Customer-hours out by month (rings, January innermost) and local hour, 2018–2025.

00061218 Jan inside

What was happening

Weather behind the outages

Each outage is matched to NOAA storm reports for Avery from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • Tropical storm 58%
  • No storm on record 34%
  • Winter storm 3.6%
  • Windstorm 2.8%
  • Ice storm 0.6%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Avery

As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole North Carolina territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.

Utility Type Outage min / yr Excl. major storms Outages / yr Residential ¢/kWh Customers
Duke Energy Progress Investor Owned 183 145 1.41 15.2 1.4M
Blue Ridge Elec Member Corp Cooperative 542 110 2.22 14.9 72k
Mountain Electric Coop, Inc Cooperative 187 187 1.95 13.2 15k

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

Across North Carolina

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All North Carolina 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 9,084 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 →