Power Out Map
– 0% of Columbia out 0 customers out in Pennsylvania

Power outage history

Columbia County Pennsylvania

9.6hours

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

18th most of 67 in Pennsylvania 1.5× the national median

Worst outage on record Jun 26, 2024 35% of customers out · 90% back in 47 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 9.6h / yr State average 6.0 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 1.5 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 27hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 3.2days Mar 2, 2018, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 60% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2024 20 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 35,125 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 Columbia'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

2024 was the worst well-recorded year, at 20 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Columbia, hours without power per customer

ColumbiaUS median countyPennsylvania average
0 5 10 15 20 25 2.6 ’15 2.7 ’16 2.2 ’17 9.9 ’18 12 ’19 3.6 ’20 13 ’21 8.1 ’22 5.5 ’23 20 ’24 5.1 ’25 US 6.6 PA 6.0

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
Jun 26, 2024 Thunderstorms 12,315 35% 2.8 d 47 h 260k
Apr 15, 2019 Tornadoes 10,278 29% 2.7 d 38 h 242k
May 15, 2018 Thunderstorms 5,162 15% 2.0 d 44 h 136k
Feb 13, 2024 Winter storm 9,117 26% 38 h 31 h 124k
Sep 1, 2021 Hurricane Ida 6,248 18% 2.3 d 42 h 115k
Mar 2, 2018 No storm report 1,721 5% 3.2 d – 81k
Sep 13, 2021 Thunderstorms 7,295 21% 29 h 24 h 67k
Jul 12, 2022 Thunderstorms 4,757 14% 32 h 32 h 62k
Mar 26, 2021 No storm report 3,468 10% 33 h 27 h 47k
Oct 28, 2015 No storm report 21,274 61% 13 h 2.5 h 46k
Jan 9, 2024 No storm report 4,207 12% 29 h 26 h 43k
Sep 7, 2023 No storm report 3,173 9% 32 h 31 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 +8h 90% by +32h

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 Columbia from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • No storm on record 40%
  • Thunderstorms 34%
  • Tornadoes 12%
  • Tropical storm 6.8%
  • Winter storm 6.2%
  • Windstorm 1.0%
  • Flooding 0.7%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Columbia

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 Catawissa PA – – – – 5.8k

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 Pennsylvania

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Pennsylvania 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 35,125 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 →