Power outage history
Washington County Rhode Island
16hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
1st most of 5 in Rhode Island 2.4× 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 Washington's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2021 was the worst well-recorded year, at 47 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Washington, 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 22, 2021 | Hurricane Henri | 48,730 | 100% | 2.7 d | 2.3 d | 1.5M |
| Oct 29, 2017 | Windstorm | 31,357 | 64% | 4.6 d | 3.4 d | 1.4M |
| Mar 2, 2018 | Windstorm | 37,375 | 77% | 3.3 d | 3.0 d | 1.2M |
| Oct 16, 2019 | Windstorm | 28,220 | 58% | 2.7 d | 27 h | 596k |
| Oct 27, 2021 | Tropical Storm Wanda | 42,616 | 87% | 2.3 d | 23 h | 528k |
| Aug 4, 2020 | Hurricane Isaias | 23,070 | 47% | 2.3 d | 41 h | 412k |
| Aug 4, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 14,386 | 30% | 2.4 d | 2.1 d | 312k |
| Feb 7, 2020 | Windstorm | 17,120 | 35% | 2.1 d | 27 h | 268k |
| Mar 13, 2018 | Winter storm | 15,666 | 32% | 34 h | 24 h | 152k |
| Feb 5, 2016 | Winter storm | 9,526 | 20% | 2.0 d | 32 h | 151k |
| Nov 1, 2019 | No storm report | 16,162 | 33% | 34 h | 13 h | 151k |
| Jan 13, 2024 | Windstorm | 21,869 | 45% | 18 h | 11 h | 85k |
| Dec 18, 2023 | Windstorm | 4,487 | 9% | 28 h | 22 h | 63k |
| Nov 13, 2021 | Tornadoes | 9,868 | 20% | 20 h | 11 h | 61k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Windstorm | 9,816 | 20% | 18 h | 14 h | 56k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Windstorm | 4,874 | 10% | 23 h | 20 h | 39k |
| Feb 9, 2017 | Winter storm | 5,025 | 10% | 11 h | 8.2 h | 33k |
| Nov 30, 2020 | Windstorm | 5,938 | 12% | 15 h | 5.5 h | 32k |
| Mar 2, 2021 | Windstorm | 3,239 | 7% | 16 h | 12 h | 32k |
| Feb 1, 2021 | Winter storm | 6,931 | 14% | 15 h | 7.5 h | 31k |
| Feb 25, 2019 | No storm report | 7,669 | 16% | 15 h | 8.5 h | 31k |
| Jul 22, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 3,759 | 8% | 6.5 h | 5.8 h | 21k |
| Mar 7, 2018 | Winter storm | 1,799 | 4% | 16 h | – | 19k |
| Dec 11, 2024 | Windstorm | 3,244 | 7% | 15 h | 15 h | 19k |
| Feb 18, 2022 | Windstorm | 3,685 | 8% | 11 h | 8.5 h | 17k |
| Feb 25, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 3,190 | 7% | 9.2 h | 2.5 h | 17k |
| Sep 30, 2020 | Windstorm | 3,084 | 6% | 10 h | 8.0 h | 16k |
| Mar 7, 2025 | Windstorm | 3,195 | 7% | 14 h | 7.5 h | 15k |
| Nov 2, 2020 | Windstorm | 7,043 | 14% | 4.5 h | 3.8 h | 15k |
| Mar 5, 2018 | No storm report | 2,288 | 5% | 11 h | – | 15k |
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 Washington from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Windstorm 43%
- Tropical storm 42%
- No storm on record 9.9%
- Winter storm 3.7%
- Tornadoes 1.1%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Washington
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Rhode Island territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Narragansett Electric Co | Investor Owned | 183 | 60 | 0.96 | 29.4 | 458k |
| Block Island Utility District | Political Subdivision | – | – | – | 38.7 | 1.6k |
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
- Washington (this county) 16 h
- New London, CT 9.2 h
- Kent 3.6 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 48,730 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 →