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

Power outage history

Madison County North Carolina

28hours

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

7th most of 100 in North Carolina 4.2× the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Helene · Sep 27, 2024 100% of customers out · 90% back in 2.2 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 28h / yr State average 8.3 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 3.4 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 33.5days Hurricane Helene, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 80% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2024 6.9 days without power, average customer
Electricity customers 5,801 EAGLE-I 2024 count · 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 Madison'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

2024 was the worst well-recorded year, at 6.9 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Madison, hours without power per customer

MadisonUS median countyNorth Carolina average
0 10 20 30 40 50 ’15 3.2 ’16 ’17 0.4 ’18 8.5 ’19 19 ’20 5.7 ’21 6.2 ’22 11 ’23 167 ’24 5.2 ’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
Sep 27, 2024 Hurricane Helene 5,801 100% 33.5 d 2.2 h 899k
Aug 7, 2020 No storm report 5,131 88% 19 h 16 h 48k
Apr 1, 2023 No storm report 1,792 31% 2.2 d 46 h 36k
Oct 31, 2024 No storm report 174 3% 8.0 d – 31k
Sep 5, 2015 No storm report 532 9% 18 h 21 h 8.9k
Oct 25, 2021 No storm report 583 10% 15 h 15 h 8.4k
Apr 1, 2016 No storm report 554 10% 15 h 15 h 7.9k
Jun 3, 2016 No storm report 553 10% 15 h 19 h 7.4k
Sep 6, 2020 No storm report 672 12% 24 h 31 h 6.7k
Jan 12, 2024 No storm report 842 15% 13 h 12 h 6.5k
Jul 29, 2019 No storm report 457 8% 27 h 22 h 4.7k
Sep 12, 2017 No storm report 65 1% 2.4 d – 3.7k

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 +14h 90% by +16h

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

  • Tropical storm 78%
  • No storm on record 20%
  • Thunderstorms 1.4%
  • Winter storm 1.3%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Madison

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
French Broad Elec Member Corp Cooperative 144 – 2.40 16.2 36k
Haywood Electric Member Corp Cooperative 776 554 5.09 16.9 30k

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 5,801 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 →