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

Power outage history

Washington County North Carolina

12hours

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

36th most of 100 in North Carolina 1.9× the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Matthew · Oct 9, 2016 100% of customers out · 90% back in 2.4 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 12h / yr State average 8.3 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 5.1 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 3.8days Hurricane Matthew, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 74% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2019 38 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 4,062 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 Washington'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

2019 was the worst well-recorded year, at 38 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Washington, hours without power per customer

WashingtonUS median countyNorth Carolina average
0 20 40 60 80 7.9 ’15 56 ’16 13 ’17 9.0 ’18 38 ’19 21 ’20 3.8 ’21 7.8 ’22 5.3 ’23 9.2 ’24 4.9 ’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
Oct 8, 2016 Hurricane Matthew 4,062 100% 3.8 d 2.4 d 150k
Sep 5, 2019 Hurricane Dorian 4,062 100% 2.8 d 2.3 d 137k
Aug 4, 2020 Hurricane Isaias 4,062 100% 42 h 32 h 66k
Sep 2, 2016 Hurricane Hermine 3,589 88% 46 h 10 h 47k
Jan 7, 2017 Winter storm 3,074 76% 42 h 26 h 44k
Jan 9, 2024 Thunderstorms 3,000 74% 24 h 6.0 h 26k
Nov 19, 2015 No storm report 3,912 96% 7.0 h 3.5 h 13k
Dec 23, 2022 Windstorm 1,722 42% 31 h 2.2 h 12k
Sep 13, 2018 Hurricane Florence 605 15% 22 h 6.5 h 6.9k
Jul 6, 2016 No storm report 530 13% 21 h 5.2 h 5.1k
Jun 7, 2018 No storm report 1,668 41% 2.8 h 3.2 h 4.3k
May 29, 2016 No storm report 608 15% 9.8 h 8.8 h 4.3k

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 +10h

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

  • Tropical storm 59%
  • No storm on record 26%
  • Thunderstorms 7.8%
  • Windstorm 3.1%
  • Winter storm 2.3%
  • Heat 1.2%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Washington

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
Virginia Electric & Power Co Investor Owned 286 137 1.49 12.7 109k
Tideland Electric Member Corp Cooperative 205 164 2.49 16.4 22k

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 4,062 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 →