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

Power outage history

Clay County North Carolina

7.9hours

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

55th most of 100 in North Carolina 1.2× the national median

Worst outage on record Jan 11, 2020 42% of customers out · 90% back in 26 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 7.9h / yr State average 8.3 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 6.1 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 2hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 41hours Jan 11, 2020, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 44% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2020 14 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 9,637 ORNL customer model · 7 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 Clay'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

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.

Clay, hours without power per customer

ClayUS median countyNorth Carolina average
0 5 10 15 20 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 1.8 ’19 14 ’20 5.2 ’21 5.2 ’22 13 ’23 9.7 ’24 6.5 ’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
Jan 11, 2020 Thunderstorms 4,092 42% 41 h 26 h 51k
Aug 7, 2023 Thunderstorms 5,464 57% 32 h 21 h 44k
May 27, 2024 Thunderstorms 5,315 55% 17 h 12 h 35k
Oct 29, 2020 Hurricane Zeta 3,131 32% 38 h 11 h 24k
Jul 2, 2023 No storm report 2,403 25% 22 h 15 h 17k
Mar 16, 2025 No storm report 1,156 12% 39 h 34 h 14k
Sep 27, 2024 Hurricane Helene 2,042 21% 35 h 13 h 14k
Apr 9, 2020 No storm report 2,687 28% 10 h 6.5 h 11k
Oct 24, 2021 No storm report 1,390 14% 7.2 h 15 h 10k
Mar 3, 2023 Thunderstorms 3,903 41% 8.8 h 1.0 h 8.1k
May 9, 2024 No storm report 1,034 11% 18 h 13 h 6.1k
Jun 7, 2025 No storm report 1,307 14% 12 h 11 h 5.7k

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 +2h 90% by +12h

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 Clay from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • No storm on record 56%
  • Thunderstorms 33%
  • Tropical storm 9.7%
  • Flooding 1.0%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Clay

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

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 9,637 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 →