Power outage history
Wilson County North Carolina
1.9hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
97th most of 100 in North Carolina 70% below 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 Wilson's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2022 was the worst well-recorded year, at 4.9 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Wilson, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 20, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 14,278 | 40% | 7.5 h | 3.2 h | 72k |
| Jan 22, 2016 | Winter storm | 888 | 2% | 2.8 d | – | 39k |
| Aug 8, 2024 | Hurricane Debby | 2,784 | 8% | 16 h | 14 h | 30k |
| Oct 8, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 678 | 2% | 2.2 d | – | 30k |
| Oct 30, 2020 | Hurricane Zeta | 13,355 | 37% | 7.2 h | 1.2 h | 18k |
| Sep 30, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 901 | 3% | 24 h | – | 16k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 2,832 | 8% | 15 h | 15 h | 16k |
| Feb 26, 2015 | Winter storm | 900 | 3% | 31 h | – | 15k |
| Jun 17, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 3,804 | 11% | 14 h | 3.5 h | 13k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | No storm report | 12,516 | 35% | 2.2 h | 12 min | 12k |
| May 11, 2025 | No storm report | 1,995 | 6% | 4.8 h | 3.0 h | 9.5k |
| Apr 15, 2018 | No storm report | 594 | 2% | 15 h | – | 8.6k |
| May 4, 2021 | No storm report | 1,708 | 5% | 5.2 h | – | 8.2k |
| Jul 6, 2022 | No storm report | 748 | 2% | 10 h | – | 7.2k |
| Jan 1, 2020 | No storm report | 1,719 | 5% | 4.5 h | – | 7.0k |
| Nov 10, 2022 | No storm report | 4,219 | 12% | 2.0 h | 1.2 h | 6.3k |
| Nov 11, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 7,963 | 22% | 1.0 h | 30 min | 5.9k |
| Jan 1, 2025 | No storm report | 1,704 | 5% | 3.2 h | – | 5.5k |
| Jul 13, 2021 | No storm report | 1,353 | 4% | 4.0 h | – | 5.4k |
| May 16, 2025 | No storm report | 1,958 | 5% | 2.8 h | 4.0 h | 5.4k |
| Oct 1, 2020 | No storm report | 9,155 | 26% | 30 min | 30 min | 4.6k |
| Oct 30, 2024 | No storm report | 1,157 | 3% | 5.0 h | – | 4.5k |
| Apr 11, 2024 | No storm report | 1,526 | 4% | 4.2 h | – | 4.4k |
| Dec 24, 2022 | No storm report | 1,177 | 3% | 4.0 h | – | 4.4k |
| Jun 22, 2022 | No storm report | 804 | 2% | 4.5 h | – | 3.4k |
| Sep 3, 2020 | No storm report | 2,864 | 8% | 1.2 h | 11 h | 3.4k |
| Aug 13, 2019 | No storm report | 2,263 | 6% | 2.5 h | 2.0 h | 3.2k |
| Feb 4, 2022 | No storm report | 396 | 1% | 8.2 h | – | 3.2k |
| Mar 5, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 2,080 | 6% | 2.8 h | 3.5 h | 2.9k |
| Jan 29, 2021 | No storm report | 2,086 | 6% | 1.5 h | 1.2 h | 2.9k |
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 Wilson from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 52%
- Thunderstorms 29%
- Tropical storm 19%
- Winter storm 0.5%
- Flooding 0.5%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Wilson
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 |
| Pitt & Greene Elec Member Corp | NC | – | – | – | 12.6 | 116k |
| City of Wilson | Municipal | 66 | 51 | 0.55 | 12.8 | 32k |
| Tri-County Elec Member Corp (NC) | Cooperative | 89 | 89 | 0.65 | 13.3 | 23k |
| Town of Lucama | NC | – | – | – | – | 14k |
| Town of Stantonsburg | NC | – | – | – | – | 13k |
| Town of Sharpsburg | NC | – | – | – | – | 13k |
| Edgecombe-Martin County E M C | Cooperative | 104 | 104 | 1.18 | 16.5 | 11k |
| Town of Black Creek | NC | – | – | – | – | 9.0k |
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 35,644 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 →