Power Out Map
– 0% of Washington out 0 customers out in New York

Power outage history

Washington County New York

11hours

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

15th most of 62 in New York 1.7× the national median

Worst outage on record May 19, 2017 47% of customers out · 90% back in 17 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 11h / yr State average 4.3 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 4.3 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 5hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 2.7days Oct 31, 2019, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 73% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2020 17 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 29,152 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

2020 was the worst well-recorded year, at 17 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 countyNew York average
0 5 10 15 20 25 3.3 ’15 7.6 ’16 18 ’17 16 ’18 8.2 ’19 17 ’20 5.3 ’21 11 ’22 11 ’23 15 ’24 6.2 ’25 US 6.6 NY 4.3

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 18, 2017 Thunderstorms 13,786 47% 46 h 17 h 252k
May 4, 2018 Thunderstorms 7,401 25% 47 h 33 h 202k
Feb 7, 2020 Winter storm 7,942 27% 2.3 d 42 h 160k
Mar 14, 2023 Winter storm 9,436 32% 39 h 30 h 149k
Jul 16, 2024 Thunderstorms 7,313 25% 2.0 d 22 h 122k
May 15, 2020 Thunderstorms 6,495 22% 41 h 10 h 116k
Oct 31, 2019 Windstorm 4,044 14% 2.7 d 38 h 112k
Oct 30, 2017 Windstorm 4,100 14% 38 h 30 h 64k
Dec 23, 2022 Windstorm 3,837 13% 2.4 d 19 h 60k
Dec 16, 2022 Winter storm 4,069 14% 40 h 20 h 58k
May 5, 2017 Windstorm 3,575 12% 28 h 20 h 44k
Aug 13, 2016 Thunderstorms 3,161 11% 26 h 23 h 41k

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 +10h 90% by +24h

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.

  • Thunderstorms 34%
  • No storm on record 27%
  • Winter storm 22%
  • Windstorm 14%
  • Tropical storm 1.4%
  • Heat 0.8%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Washington

As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole New York territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.

Utility Type Outage min / yr Excl. major storms Outages / yr Residential ¢/kWh Customers
Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. Investor Owned 242 140 1.39 19.9 1.5M
New York State Elec & Gas Corp Investor Owned 302 146 1.85 22.6 794k

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 New York

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All New York 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 29,152 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 →