Power outage history
Berks County Pennsylvania
5.4hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
43rd most of 67 in Pennsylvania 18% 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 Berks's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2020 was the worst well-recorded year, at 8.4 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Berks, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 4, 2020 | Hurricane Isaias | 26,109 | 12% | 2.2 d | 2.0 d | 572k |
| Jun 3, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 34,299 | 16% | 41 h | 32 h | 480k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | No storm report | 12,250 | 6% | 41 h | 25 h | 254k |
| Apr 15, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 16,476 | 8% | 28 h | 27 h | 208k |
| Mar 2, 2018 | Windstorm | 9,630 | 4% | 34 h | 38 h | 202k |
| Sep 1, 2021 | Hurricane Ida | 11,705 | 5% | 42 h | 46 h | 200k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Winter storm | 8,070 | 4% | 32 h | 40 h | 155k |
| Jul 1, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 10,908 | 5% | 22 h | 26 h | 133k |
| Aug 13, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 9,150 | 4% | 20 h | 27 h | 120k |
| Dec 19, 2025 | No storm report | 7,391 | 3% | 26 h | 33 h | 120k |
| Sep 7, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 6,538 | 3% | 22 h | 21 h | 94k |
| Feb 28, 2024 | No storm report | 7,269 | 3% | 16 h | 16 h | 88k |
| Jul 25, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 6,442 | 3% | 22 h | 25 h | 88k |
| Apr 3, 2024 | No storm report | 8,422 | 4% | 24 h | 26 h | 82k |
| Apr 22, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 15,532 | 7% | 18 h | 21 h | 79k |
| Jul 16, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 6,782 | 3% | 19 h | 29 h | 76k |
| Feb 25, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 14,016 | 6% | 10 h | 13 h | 75k |
| Feb 18, 2022 | No storm report | 8,577 | 4% | 17 h | 22 h | 73k |
| Feb 13, 2024 | Winter storm | 10,207 | 5% | 12 h | 22 h | 65k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | No storm report | 4,439 | 2% | 17 h | – | 55k |
| Nov 15, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 10,423 | 5% | 9.2 h | 13 h | 53k |
| Apr 9, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 11,530 | 5% | 6.8 h | 18 h | 48k |
| Aug 3, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 3,509 | 2% | 18 h | – | 44k |
| Jan 14, 2024 | No storm report | 6,702 | 3% | 10 h | 21 h | 42k |
| Jun 12, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 16,491 | 8% | 5.2 h | 6.2 h | 35k |
| May 19, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 6,225 | 3% | 9.0 h | 15 h | 34k |
| Aug 7, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 3,906 | 2% | 14 h | – | 34k |
| Nov 1, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 3,668 | 2% | 11 h | – | 33k |
| Feb 25, 2019 | No storm report | 4,480 | 2% | 8.8 h | – | 28k |
| May 26, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 5,372 | 2% | 6.5 h | 18 h | 27k |
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 Berks from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 40%
- No storm on record 30%
- Tropical storm 18%
- Winter storm 5.9%
- Windstorm 5.1%
- Flooding 0.8%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Berks
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Pennsylvania territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FirstEnergy Pennsylvania Electric Co | Investor Owned | 647 | 217 | 2.02 | 18.8 | 1.8M |
| PPL Electric Utilities Corp | Investor Owned | 198 | 116 | 0.97 | 18.6 | 1.3M |
| Borough of Kutztown | PA | – | – | – | – | 16k |
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
- Montgomery 13 h
- Chester 9.3 h
- Schuylkill 5.5 h
- Berks (this county) 5.4 h
- Lebanon 3.9 h
- Lehigh 3.0 h
- Lancaster 2.8 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 219,087 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 →