Power outage history
Carbon County Pennsylvania
6.1hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
39th most of 67 in Pennsylvania close to 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 Carbon'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 12 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Carbon, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2, 2018 | Winter storm | 8,904 | 28% | 2.7 d | 2.1 d | 190k |
| Jun 26, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 5,160 | 16% | 30 h | 23 h | 70k |
| May 15, 2018 | No storm report | 4,166 | 13% | 28 h | 22 h | 55k |
| Nov 22, 2024 | Winter storm | 1,993 | 6% | 47 h | 33 h | 47k |
| Sep 1, 2021 | Hurricane Ida | 2,122 | 7% | 31 h | 34 h | 34k |
| Mar 11, 2024 | No storm report | 2,753 | 9% | 28 h | 26 h | 30k |
| Feb 13, 2024 | Winter storm | 1,548 | 5% | 33 h | – | 28k |
| Dec 19, 2025 | No storm report | 2,960 | 9% | 18 h | 14 h | 26k |
| Feb 24, 2016 | No storm report | 3,516 | 11% | 13 h | 11 h | 23k |
| Dec 24, 2020 | No storm report | 1,647 | 5% | 23 h | 12 h | 23k |
| Jun 24, 2024 | No storm report | 3,642 | 11% | 12 h | 3.0 h | 21k |
| Sep 23, 2023 | No storm report | 5,440 | 17% | 8.5 h | 8.5 h | 21k |
| Aug 9, 2024 | Hurricane Debby | 1,834 | 6% | 23 h | 25 h | 19k |
| Jun 14, 2018 | No storm report | 5,381 | 17% | 5.5 h | 5.5 h | 17k |
| Apr 3, 2024 | No storm report | 1,312 | 4% | 22 h | – | 17k |
| Dec 28, 2023 | No storm report | 3,086 | 10% | 9.2 h | 7.8 h | 16k |
| Nov 5, 2025 | No storm report | 2,300 | 7% | 17 h | 16 h | 16k |
| Apr 3, 2016 | No storm report | 2,453 | 8% | 10 h | 9.8 h | 15k |
| Jan 13, 2024 | No storm report | 1,719 | 5% | 13 h | 13 h | 14k |
| Aug 4, 2020 | Hurricane Isaias | 2,732 | 8% | 14 h | 5.2 h | 14k |
| Nov 1, 2020 | No storm report | 1,743 | 5% | 20 h | 15 h | 14k |
| Aug 18, 2023 | No storm report | 2,673 | 8% | 9.5 h | 2.0 h | 13k |
| Apr 22, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 2,055 | 6% | 12 h | 7.8 h | 13k |
| Jun 19, 2020 | No storm report | 1,305 | 4% | 11 h | – | 12k |
| May 31, 2025 | No storm report | 2,790 | 9% | 5.5 h | 5.5 h | 11k |
| Dec 1, 2019 | Winter storm | 1,170 | 4% | 17 h | – | 10k |
| Jan 14, 2024 | No storm report | 1,487 | 5% | 11 h | – | 9.6k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Winter storm | 3,115 | 10% | 12 h | 3.2 h | 9.3k |
| Dec 6, 2021 | No storm report | 1,901 | 6% | 6.5 h | 6.5 h | 9.0k |
| Jan 25, 2023 | Winter storm | 1,412 | 4% | 6.0 h | – | 8.0k |
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 Carbon from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 56%
- Winter storm 27%
- Thunderstorms 11%
- Tropical storm 6.1%
- Windstorm 0.5%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Carbon
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PPL Electric Utilities Corp | Investor Owned | 198 | 116 | 0.97 | 18.6 | 1.3M |
| Borough of Lehighton | PA | – | – | – | – | 19k |
| Borough of Weatherly | PA | – | – | – | – | 9.1k |
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
- Monroe 14 h
- Carbon (this county) 6.1 h
- Schuylkill 5.5 h
- Northampton 5.3 h
- Lehigh 3.0 h
- Luzerne 2.5 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 32,206 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 →