Power outage history
Catawba County North Carolina
7.1hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
60th most of 100 in North Carolina 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 Catawba'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 28 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Catawba, 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 | 28,303 | 32% | 7.3 d | 13 h | 2.2M |
| Oct 29, 2020 | Hurricane Zeta | 26,955 | 31% | 4.1 d | 3.1 d | 765k |
| Oct 23, 2017 | Tornadoes | 30,796 | 35% | 3.1 d | 2.0 d | 761k |
| Aug 7, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 17,631 | 20% | 45 h | 41 h | 360k |
| Nov 24, 2018 | Winter storm | 8,458 | 10% | 21 h | 13 h | 83k |
| Dec 24, 2022 | Winter storm | 7,477 | 8% | 13 h | 8.0 h | 51k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | Tornadoes | 5,358 | 6% | 23 h | 24 h | 48k |
| Feb 24, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 3,908 | 4% | 26 h | – | 45k |
| Dec 19, 2023 | No storm report | 4,628 | 5% | 12 h | 11 h | 34k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 3,638 | 4% | 12 h | – | 32k |
| Jan 11, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 2,913 | 3% | 15 h | – | 30k |
| Aug 13, 2023 | No storm report | 17,282 | 20% | 2.0 h | 1.8 h | 26k |
| Nov 23, 2015 | No storm report | 14,757 | 17% | 2.2 h | 1.8 h | 25k |
| Jul 21, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 8,824 | 10% | 4.5 h | 3.5 h | 22k |
| Jul 3, 2022 | No storm report | 3,037 | 3% | 15 h | – | 22k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Windstorm | 1,976 | 2% | 12 h | – | 18k |
| Aug 8, 2024 | Hurricane Debby | 3,839 | 4% | 7.2 h | – | 18k |
| Jan 12, 2018 | No storm report | 8,584 | 10% | 6.8 h | 6.8 h | 17k |
| Jul 8, 2015 | No storm report | 2,450 | 3% | 9.5 h | – | 15k |
| Jul 9, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 8,638 | 10% | 4.5 h | 3.0 h | 13k |
| Jul 14, 2019 | No storm report | 2,426 | 3% | 7.0 h | – | 13k |
| Dec 8, 2017 | Winter storm | 3,017 | 3% | 5.8 h | – | 12k |
| Jul 16, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 2,258 | 3% | 6.5 h | – | 11k |
| Nov 12, 2020 | Flooding | 12,741 | 14% | 3.0 h | 48 min | 11k |
| May 23, 2018 | No storm report | 3,606 | 4% | 3.0 h | – | 10k |
| Feb 11, 2019 | No storm report | 3,602 | 4% | 3.5 h | – | 10k |
| Oct 26, 2021 | No storm report | 6,622 | 8% | 1.5 h | 1.5 h | 9.9k |
| Aug 23, 2022 | No storm report | 1,820 | 2% | 5.8 h | – | 9.7k |
| Oct 11, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 2,045 | 2% | 7.5 h | – | 9.7k |
| Mar 16, 2021 | No storm report | 1,352 | 2% | 6.8 h | – | 9.1k |
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 Catawba from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 72%
- No storm on record 12%
- Thunderstorms 11%
- Winter storm 3.3%
- Tornadoes 1.2%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Catawba
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 |
| EnergyUnited Elec Member Corp | Cooperative | 169 | 121 | 1.56 | 11.6 | 124k |
| Rutherford Elec Member Corp | Cooperative | 149 | 135 | 1.24 | 13.0 | 72k |
| City of Newton | NC | 354 | 48 | 1.70 | 12.5 | 48k |
| Town of Maiden | NC | – | – | – | – | 12k |
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.
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 88,250 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 →