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

Power outage history

McDowell County North Carolina

41hours

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

4th most of 100 in North Carolina 6.3× the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Helene · Sep 27, 2024 100% of customers out · 90% back in 12.8 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 41h / yr State average 8.3 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 6.6 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 19.8days Hurricane Helene, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 89% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2024 10.6 days without power, average customer
Electricity customers 12,442 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 McDowell'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 10.6 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

McDowell, hours without power per customer

McDowellUS median countyNorth Carolina average
0 10 20 30 40 50 3.9 ’15 8.1 ’16 19 ’17 15 ’18 14 ’19 10 ’20 13 ’21 7.6 ’22 8.6 ’23 255 ’24 9.8 ’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 12,442 100% 19.8 d 12.8 d 3.1M
Dec 8, 2017 Winter storm 2,716 22% 2.3 d 37 h 65k
Dec 9, 2018 Winter storm 1,671 13% 2.6 d 2.2 d 61k
Aug 17, 2021 Tropical Storm Fred 12,442 100% 26 h 7.8 h 60k
Oct 29, 2020 Hurricane Zeta 3,028 24% 2.5 d 30 min 41k
May 13, 2017 No storm report 2,946 24% 12 h 3.8 h 35k
Feb 16, 2016 Ice storm 3,341 27% 22 h 8.2 h 32k
May 29, 2018 Flooding 1,255 10% 2.1 d 41 h 29k
Apr 26, 2019 Windstorm 2,338 19% 23 h 18 h 28k
Apr 1, 2023 No storm report 1,353 11% 27 h 24 h 25k
Oct 23, 2017 Flooding 1,816 15% 27 h 17 h 22k
Jul 17, 2019 No storm report 2,114 17% 13 h 9.5 h 21k

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 +10h 90% by +24h

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

  • Tropical storm 81%
  • No storm on record 11%
  • Winter storm 2.3%
  • Thunderstorms 1.9%
  • Flooding 1.2%
  • Windstorm 1.2%
  • Ice storm 0.8%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving McDowell

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
Duke Energy Progress Investor Owned 183 145 1.41 15.2 1.4M
Rutherford Elec Member Corp Cooperative 149 135 1.24 13.0 72k
French Broad Elec Member Corp Cooperative 144 – 2.40 16.2 36k

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 12,442 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 →