Power outage history
Burke County North Carolina
13hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
31st most of 100 in North Carolina 2.0× 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 Burke'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 3.3 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Burke, 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 | 35,178 | 60% | 12.1 d | 7.7 d | 4.5M |
| Oct 29, 2020 | Hurricane Zeta | 10,129 | 17% | 3.3 d | 2.4 d | 327k |
| Oct 23, 2017 | Tornadoes | 5,228 | 9% | 3.1 d | 3.0 d | 275k |
| Nov 24, 2018 | Ice storm | 4,806 | 8% | 39 h | 36 h | 106k |
| Dec 9, 2018 | Winter storm | 2,358 | 4% | 39 h | – | 77k |
| Feb 24, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 3,932 | 7% | 24 h | 24 h | 39k |
| Apr 23, 2019 | No storm report | 3,036 | 5% | 18 h | 11 h | 35k |
| Nov 10, 2023 | No storm report | 7,646 | 13% | 4.5 h | 3.2 h | 34k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | No storm report | 3,205 | 5% | 18 h | 6.2 h | 32k |
| Apr 10, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 3,171 | 5% | 11 h | 12 h | 31k |
| Aug 7, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 5,654 | 10% | 20 h | 19 h | 30k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Winter storm | 4,202 | 7% | 8.8 h | 8.2 h | 19k |
| Dec 9, 2017 | Winter storm | 1,662 | 3% | 18 h | – | 17k |
| Jul 17, 2019 | No storm report | 1,112 | 2% | 12 h | – | 12k |
| Jul 10, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 1,571 | 3% | 9.0 h | – | 11k |
| Jun 10, 2019 | Flooding | 1,257 | 2% | 9.5 h | – | 11k |
| Dec 22, 2022 | No storm report | 3,193 | 5% | 4.5 h | 4.0 h | 10k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | Winter storm | 2,350 | 4% | 8.2 h | – | 10k |
| Dec 24, 2022 | Winter storm | 2,312 | 4% | 5.0 h | – | 9.5k |
| Jan 14, 2023 | No storm report | 1,863 | 3% | 5.2 h | – | 9.0k |
| Oct 8, 2017 | Tornadoes | 4,684 | 8% | 2.2 h | 1.5 h | 8.9k |
| Jan 11, 2020 | No storm report | 2,596 | 4% | 10 h | – | 8.4k |
| May 16, 2023 | No storm report | 3,867 | 7% | 6.0 h | 1.2 h | 8.1k |
| Jan 4, 2019 | No storm report | 1,213 | 2% | 6.5 h | – | 7.9k |
| Dec 20, 2022 | No storm report | 3,539 | 6% | 3.2 h | 2.2 h | 7.7k |
| Apr 26, 2019 | No storm report | 1,012 | 2% | 8.5 h | – | 7.4k |
| Oct 11, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 812 | 1% | 8.0 h | – | 6.4k |
| Mar 16, 2021 | No storm report | 2,960 | 5% | 2.8 h | 2.0 h | 5.9k |
| Aug 17, 2025 | No storm report | 1,058 | 2% | 7.8 h | – | 5.7k |
| Jul 29, 2020 | No storm report | 1,077 | 2% | 5.2 h | – | 5.6k |
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 Burke from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 88%
- No storm on record 6.5%
- Winter storm 2.1%
- Ice storm 1.9%
- Thunderstorms 1.7%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Burke
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 Carolinas, LLC | Investor Owned | 216 | 172 | 1.35 | 13.4 | 2.0M |
| Rutherford Elec Member Corp | Cooperative | 149 | 135 | 1.24 | 13.0 | 72k |
| Mountain Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 187 | 187 | 1.95 | 13.2 | 15k |
| Town of Drexel | NC | – | – | – | – | 15k |
| City of Morganton | Municipal | 43 | 43 | 0.40 | 11.6 | 7.1k |
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 58,382 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 →