Power outage history
Johnston County North Carolina
4.1hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
89th most of 100 in North Carolina 38% below 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 Johnston's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2018 was the worst well-recorded year, at 12 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Johnston, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 8, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 39,337 | 34% | 4.0 d | 3.2 d | 1.9M |
| Jan 22, 2016 | Winter storm | 30,913 | 27% | 3.1 d | 2.2 d | 1.1M |
| Sep 15, 2018 | Hurricane Florence | 28,356 | 25% | 3.8 d | 2.6 d | 763k |
| Sep 30, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 12,116 | 11% | 46 h | 27 h | 216k |
| Sep 14, 2018 | Hurricane Florence | 20,248 | 18% | 16 h | 13 h | 161k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | No storm report | 9,438 | 8% | 31 h | 30 h | 128k |
| Oct 11, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 14,853 | 13% | 21 h | 19 h | 110k |
| Jun 17, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 7,897 | 7% | 21 h | 22 h | 69k |
| Sep 5, 2019 | Hurricane Dorian | 5,627 | 5% | 16 h | 6.5 h | 57k |
| Aug 4, 2020 | Hurricane Isaias | 8,228 | 7% | 9.8 h | 3.5 h | 50k |
| Aug 31, 2020 | Flooding | 4,263 | 4% | 17 h | – | 47k |
| May 19, 2018 | No storm report | 7,494 | 7% | 6.0 h | 8.2 h | 45k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 6,385 | 6% | 17 h | 17 h | 44k |
| Aug 7, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 6,100 | 5% | 14 h | 14 h | 43k |
| Feb 7, 2020 | Windstorm | 5,341 | 5% | 15 h | 22 h | 35k |
| Jul 17, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 4,915 | 4% | 12 h | – | 32k |
| Apr 15, 2018 | No storm report | 6,818 | 6% | 12 h | 10 h | 29k |
| Feb 26, 2015 | Winter storm | 2,916 | 3% | 12 h | – | 26k |
| Jun 26, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 6,111 | 5% | 7.5 h | 6.0 h | 25k |
| Apr 19, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 7,738 | 7% | 5.8 h | 4.2 h | 23k |
| May 31, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 3,379 | 3% | 6.0 h | – | 19k |
| Feb 15, 2019 | No storm report | 2,615 | 2% | 7.2 h | – | 19k |
| Jul 7, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 3,986 | 3% | 6.5 h | – | 18k |
| Jan 1, 2018 | No storm report | 2,510 | 2% | 8.2 h | – | 18k |
| Jul 16, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 3,863 | 3% | 5.5 h | – | 17k |
| Jul 8, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 3,556 | 3% | 5.0 h | – | 16k |
| Oct 31, 2025 | No storm report | 2,225 | 2% | 7.8 h | – | 16k |
| Jul 5, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 2,787 | 2% | 10 h | – | 16k |
| Sep 23, 2023 | Tropical Storm Ophelia | 3,550 | 3% | 4.5 h | – | 15k |
| May 29, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 3,100 | 3% | 7.5 h | – | 15k |
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 Johnston from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 56%
- No storm on record 26%
- Thunderstorms 15%
- Flooding 1.9%
- Windstorm 1.4%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Johnston
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 |
| Town of Clayton | NC | – | – | – | 13.9 | 75k |
| Wake Electric Membership Corp | Cooperative | 211 | 128 | 1.94 | 14.3 | 56k |
| South River Elec Member Corp | Cooperative | 107 | 85 | – | 14.6 | 46k |
| Town of Smithfield | NC | – | – | – | 11.6 | 43k |
| City of Wilson | Municipal | 66 | 51 | 0.55 | 12.8 | 32k |
| Town of Selma | NC | – | – | – | – | 29k |
| Tri-County Elec Member Corp (NC) | Cooperative | 89 | 89 | 0.65 | 13.3 | 23k |
| Town of Benson | NC | 472 | 110 | 3.26 | – | 18k |
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 115,094 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 →