Power outage history
Yancey County North Carolina
78hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
1st most of 100 in North Carolina 12× 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 Yancey'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 21.1 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Yancey, 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 | 7,907 | 100% | 33.7 d | 2.2 h | 3.8M |
| Oct 31, 2024 | No storm report | 1,093 | 14% | 14.0 d | 4.5 d | 150k |
| Aug 7, 2020 | No storm report | 7,889 | 100% | 19 h | 16 h | 34k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | No storm report | 4,369 | 55% | 26 h | 8.5 h | 27k |
| Jan 15, 2024 | Winter storm | 1,573 | 20% | 27 h | 13 h | 16k |
| Feb 12, 2025 | Winter storm | 1,136 | 14% | 36 h | 1.2 h | 8.7k |
| Oct 13, 2021 | No storm report | 491 | 6% | 16 h | 16 h | 7.2k |
| Apr 7, 2023 | No storm report | 923 | 12% | 7.5 h | 4.5 h | 5.5k |
| Oct 20, 2018 | No storm report | 636 | 8% | 19 h | 14 h | 4.9k |
| Feb 27, 2015 | No storm report | 615 | 8% | 7.2 h | 7.2 h | 4.5k |
| Aug 17, 2021 | Tropical Storm Fred | 1,010 | 13% | 11 h | 2.2 h | 4.2k |
| May 28, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 224 | 3% | 16 h | – | 3.6k |
| May 17, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 963 | 12% | 6.2 h | 6.0 h | 3.4k |
| Sep 11, 2017 | No storm report | 190 | 2% | 24 h | – | 3.3k |
| Aug 7, 2023 | Tornadoes | 754 | 10% | 9.5 h | 9.2 h | 3.2k |
| Apr 22, 2015 | No storm report | 617 | 8% | 4.5 h | 4.5 h | 2.6k |
| Mar 16, 2025 | No storm report | 615 | 8% | 12 h | 10 h | 2.6k |
| Feb 19, 2016 | No storm report | 223 | 3% | 11 h | – | 2.5k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | No storm report | 351 | 4% | 16 h | – | 2.4k |
| Feb 3, 2022 | No storm report | 275 | 3% | 9.0 h | – | 2.3k |
| May 17, 2025 | No storm report | 451 | 6% | 9.2 h | 6.8 h | 2.3k |
| May 2, 2023 | No storm report | 451 | 6% | 5.8 h | 5.5 h | 2.2k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Winter storm | 325 | 4% | 12 h | – | 2.2k |
| Jun 17, 2025 | No storm report | 735 | 9% | 4.5 h | 2.0 h | 2.2k |
| Sep 26, 2021 | No storm report | 85 | 1% | 22 h | – | 1.8k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | Winter storm | 570 | 7% | 5.0 h | 4.2 h | 1.5k |
| Mar 5, 2025 | No storm report | 332 | 4% | 9.5 h | – | 1.5k |
| Jan 18, 2024 | No storm report | 495 | 6% | 4.0 h | 4.0 h | 1.4k |
| Mar 25, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 1,611 | 20% | 1.8 h | 48 min | 1.4k |
| Jul 21, 2020 | No storm report | 583 | 7% | 2.5 h | 2.0 h | 1.4k |
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 Yancey from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 91%
- No storm on record 7.6%
- Winter storm 0.7%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Yancey
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 |
| French Broad Elec Member Corp | Cooperative | 144 | – | 2.40 | 16.2 | 36k |
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
- Yancey (this county) 78 h
- Mitchell 59 h
- McDowell 41 h
- Madison 28 h
- Buncombe 20 h
- Unicoi, TN 0.7 h
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 7,907 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 →