– 0% of Mecklenburg out 0 customers out in North Carolina

Power outage history

Mecklenburg County North Carolina

5.4hours

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

77th most of 100 in North Carolina 17% below the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Helene · Sep 27, 2024 20% of customers out · 90% back in 18 hours

Hours without power, average customer per year 5.4h / yr State average 8.3 h · national median 6.6 h

Major outages a year 0.9 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers

Typical time to restore 90% 27hours Median across major outages, from the peak

Longest single outage 2.7days Hurricane Helene, over 1% of customers out

Outage hours on storm days 93% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here

Worst year 2024 11 hours without power, average customer

Electricity customers 588,615 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 Mecklenburg'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 11 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Mecklenburg, hours without power per customer

MecklenburgUS median countyNorth Carolina average

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	116,836	20%	2.7 d	18 h	2.8M
Oct 11, 2018	Hurricane Michael	54,328	9%	2.3 d	2.1 d	1.4M
Jul 8, 2016	Thunderstorms	50,103	9%	43 h	42 h	1.0M
Dec 9, 2018	Winter storm	55,999	10%	2.1 d	45 h	977k
May 8, 2024	Thunderstorms	75,384	13%	29 h	27 h	919k
Sep 15, 2018	Hurricane Florence	31,826	5%	2.5 d	44 h	815k
May 22, 2020	Thunderstorms	64,686	11%	29 h	27 h	762k
Dec 24, 2022	Winter storm	105,751	18%	12 h	8.2 h	623k
Apr 13, 2020	Thunderstorms	47,013	8%	29 h	28 h	568k
Feb 6, 2020	Tornadoes	25,491	4%	38 h	2.0 d	544k
Jun 22, 2019	Thunderstorms	33,764	6%	28 h	36 h	480k
Oct 29, 2020	Hurricane Zeta	45,357	8%	27 h	26 h	377k
Jan 9, 2024	Thunderstorms	61,063	10%	22 h	20 h	367k
Aug 8, 2024	Hurricane Debby	25,379	4%	16 h	19 h	286k
Sep 30, 2022	Hurricane Ian	14,938	3%	21 h	21 h	226k
Feb 24, 2016	Windstorm	20,422	3%	21 h	27 h	215k
Sep 11, 2017	No storm report	13,049	2%	22 h	27 h	202k
Aug 7, 2023	Tornadoes	27,890	5%	13 h	15 h	183k
Jan 3, 2022	No storm report	23,554	4%	9.8 h	11 h	125k
Dec 23, 2022	Windstorm	13,415	2%	11 h	20 h	113k
Apr 15, 2018	Thunderstorms	14,749	3%	10 h	21 h	94k
Dec 29, 2024	Tornadoes	18,973	3%	6.8 h	9.2 h	87k
Jun 16, 2022	Thunderstorms	22,871	4%	7.0 h	19 h	86k
Jun 4, 2024	No storm report	16,562	3%	7.5 h	16 h	85k
May 12, 2025	No storm report	8,686	1%	11 h	4.5 h	85k
Aug 1, 2025	Thunderstorms	10,601	2%	6.0 h	16 h	59k
Jun 6, 2021	Flooding	17,046	3%	5.8 h	6.2 h	58k
Jun 26, 2015	Thunderstorms	14,387	2%	6.2 h	11 h	58k
Jul 6, 2018	No storm report	13,744	2%	5.8 h	12 h	58k
Aug 14, 2021	Thunderstorms	10,927	2%	6.5 h	17 h	56k

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

Tropical storm 44%
Thunderstorms 29%
Winter storm 12%
No storm on record 7.2%
Tornadoes 6.2%
Windstorm 0.9%
Flooding 0.8%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Mecklenburg

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
EnergyUnited Elec Member Corp	Cooperative	169	121	1.56	11.6	124k
Union Electric Membership Corp	Cooperative	52	47	0.68	13.9	87k
Town of Cornelius	NC	107	–	1.25	–	34k
Town of Pineville	NC	–	–	–	11.8	33k
Town of Huntersville	Municipal	24	24	0.22	12.6	8.6k
York Electric Coop Inc	Cooperative	–	–	–	12.9	16

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

Lincoln 13 h
Union 6.5 h
Gaston 5.8 h
Lancaster, SC 5.5 h
Mecklenburg (this county) 5.4 h
Cabarrus 4.1 h
Iredell 3.9 h
York, SC 3.1 h

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 588,615 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 →