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

Power outage history

Onslow County North Carolina

15hours

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

24th most of 100 in North Carolina 2.2× the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Florence · Sep 15, 2018 93% of customers out · 90% back in 5.1 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 15h / yr State average 8.3 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 2.0 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 4hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 6.8days Hurricane Florence, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 91% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2018 3.8 days without power, average customer
Electricity customers 77,669 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 Onslow'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

2018 was the worst well-recorded year, at 3.8 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Onslow, hours without power per customer

OnslowUS median countyNorth Carolina average
0 10 20 30 40 1.3 ’15 10 ’16 1.2 ’17 91 ’18 3.9 ’19 12 ’20 1.7 ’21 3.3 ’22 1.9 ’23 2.6 ’24 1.4 ’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 15, 2018 Hurricane Florence 71,864 93% 6.8 d 5.1 d 5.8M
Sep 13, 2018 Hurricane Florence 61,372 79% 26 h 13 h 976k
Aug 3, 2020 Hurricane Isaias 50,789 65% 41 h 21 h 703k
Oct 8, 2016 Hurricane Matthew 30,149 39% 2.3 d 28 h 644k
Sep 5, 2019 Hurricane Dorian 14,540 19% 30 h 8.5 h 158k
Dec 24, 2022 No storm report 14,892 19% 9.2 h 6.0 h 82k
Oct 11, 2018 Hurricane Michael 7,113 9% 20 h 16 h 77k
May 17, 2024 No storm report 12,387 16% 5.0 h 5.2 h 62k
Aug 19, 2015 No storm report 10,293 13% 4.0 h 3.5 h 41k
Jan 9, 2024 Thunderstorms 7,568 10% 7.5 h 3.8 h 37k
Apr 13, 2020 Thunderstorms 12,063 16% 8.0 h 6.0 h 29k
Dec 4, 2020 No storm report 12,498 16% 2.2 h 48 min 22k

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 +6h 90% by +6h

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

  • Tropical storm 90%
  • No storm on record 8.6%
  • Thunderstorms 1.2%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Onslow

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
Jones-Onslow Elec Member Corp Cooperative 57 53 0.70 13.4 81k
Carteret-Craven El Member Corp Cooperative 118 72 1.55 12.5 39k
Four County Elec Member Corp Cooperative 110 82 1.84 15.1 31k

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 77,669 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 →