Power outage history
Wilkes County North Carolina
7.8hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
57th most of 100 in North Carolina 1.2× the national median
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 Wilkes's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2024 was the worst well-recorded year, at 33 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Wilkes, hours without power per customer
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 | 22,628 | 50% | 6.9 d | 3.7 d | 1.3M |
| Oct 23, 2017 | Tornadoes | 25,695 | 56% | 3.3 d | 2.2 d | 832k |
| Jul 8, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 23,217 | 51% | 3.0 d | 41 h | 697k |
| Dec 9, 2018 | Winter storm | 3,772 | 8% | 2.3 d | 2.3 d | 118k |
| Oct 29, 2020 | Hurricane Zeta | 3,867 | 8% | 2.4 d | 34 h | 91k |
| Mar 2, 2018 | Windstorm | 3,622 | 8% | 34 h | 31 h | 57k |
| Feb 16, 2016 | Winter storm | 7,359 | 16% | 20 h | 8.5 h | 54k |
| Jan 13, 2019 | Winter storm | 3,917 | 9% | 34 h | 26 h | 44k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | Windstorm | 5,176 | 11% | 21 h | 14 h | 35k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Winter storm | 2,614 | 6% | 17 h | 19 h | 27k |
| Dec 8, 2017 | Winter storm | 2,128 | 5% | 22 h | – | 24k |
| Apr 11, 2024 | Tornadoes | 2,799 | 6% | 20 h | 17 h | 23k |
| Dec 24, 2022 | Winter storm | 3,392 | 7% | 12 h | 6.8 h | 22k |
| Nov 24, 2018 | No storm report | 2,816 | 6% | 15 h | 11 h | 22k |
| Jun 20, 2020 | No storm report | 9,834 | 22% | 2.5 h | 2.5 h | 20k |
| Jun 20, 2020 | No storm report | 9,763 | 21% | 2.0 h | 1.5 h | 18k |
| Mar 2, 2024 | No storm report | 5,520 | 12% | 3.8 h | 1.2 h | 18k |
| Sep 10, 2024 | No storm report | 7,044 | 15% | 2.8 h | 2.0 h | 17k |
| Nov 16, 2016 | No storm report | 3,336 | 7% | 4.8 h | 6.8 h | 16k |
| Jul 21, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 7,190 | 16% | 4.5 h | 4.0 h | 16k |
| Jul 3, 2025 | No storm report | 7,053 | 15% | 2.2 h | 2.0 h | 15k |
| Aug 12, 2025 | No storm report | 6,535 | 14% | 2.8 h | 2.2 h | 15k |
| Apr 26, 2019 | No storm report | 1,932 | 4% | 14 h | – | 13k |
| Aug 24, 2025 | No storm report | 2,673 | 6% | 10 h | 8.5 h | 13k |
| Aug 15, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 1,439 | 3% | 17 h | – | 13k |
| May 29, 2021 | No storm report | 679 | 1% | 19 h | – | 13k |
| Jul 1, 2022 | No storm report | 1,725 | 4% | 6.8 h | – | 11k |
| Jun 14, 2025 | No storm report | 2,353 | 5% | 11 h | 4.2 h | 11k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 1,917 | 4% | 9.5 h | – | 11k |
| Jun 4, 2016 | No storm report | 1,436 | 3% | 8.2 h | – | 11k |
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 Wilkes from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 62%
- No storm on record 19%
- Winter storm 9.2%
- Thunderstorms 4.3%
- Windstorm 4.2%
- Tornadoes 1.0%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Wilkes
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 |
| Blue Ridge Elec Member Corp | Cooperative | 542 | 110 | 2.22 | 14.9 | 72k |
| Surry-Yadkin Elec Member Corp | Cooperative | 249 | 176 | 1.81 | 17.5 | 28k |
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.
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 45,606 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 →