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

Power outage history

Gates County North Carolina

6.8hours

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

62nd most of 100 in North Carolina close to the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Isaias · Aug 4, 2020 87% of customers out · 90% back in 28 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 6.8h / yr State average 8.3 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 3.8 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 2.6days Hurricane Matthew, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 59% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2020 19 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 5,460 ORNL customer model · 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 Gates'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 19 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Gates, hours without power per customer

GatesUS median countyNorth Carolina average
0 5 10 15 20 25 7.5 ’15 8.1 ’16 2.4 ’17 3.0 ’18 11 ’19 19 ’20 6.1 ’21 2.3 ’22 0.8 ’23 4.8 ’24 7.0 ’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
Aug 4, 2020 Hurricane Isaias 4,753 87% 2.3 d 28 h 65k
Sep 6, 2019 Hurricane Dorian 2,858 52% 29 h 12 h 36k
Oct 8, 2016 Hurricane Matthew 1,527 28% 2.6 d 8.0 h 25k
Jul 10, 2021 Hurricane Elsa 501 9% 38 h 35 h 16k
Aug 6, 2015 No storm report 927 17% 15 h 12 min 14k
Apr 13, 2020 No storm report 1,805 33% 13 h 7.8 h 13k
Feb 6, 2020 Thunderstorms 1,701 31% 13 h 6.0 h 12k
Jun 20, 2019 Thunderstorms 2,025 37% 13 h 7.0 h 12k
Aug 18, 2015 No storm report 1,202 22% 10 h 9.0 h 10k
Jun 29, 2025 No storm report 1,475 27% 7.0 h 3.5 h 9.1k
Jan 9, 2024 No storm report 1,013 19% 25 h 23 h 9.0k
Feb 24, 2016 No storm report 567 10% 15 h 14 h 7.6k

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.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100% peak+24h+48h+72h+96h half back by +4h 90% by +10h

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

  • Tropical storm 45%
  • No storm on record 41%
  • Thunderstorms 13%
  • Winter storm 0.7%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Gates

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
Virginia Electric & Power Co Investor Owned 286 137 1.49 12.7 109k
Roanoke Electric Member Corp Cooperative 179 179 1.48 20.7 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.

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 5,460 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 →