Power outage history
Cherokee County South Carolina
10hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
19th most of 46 in South Carolina 1.6× 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 Cherokee'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 2.8 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Cherokee, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 20,452 | 51% | 10.5 d | 8.9 d | 2.6M |
| Jun 16, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 12,546 | 32% | 22 h | 7.5 h | 59k |
| Oct 23, 2017 | Tornadoes | 4,511 | 11% | 30 h | 29 h | 45k |
| Dec 27, 2020 | No storm report | 3,544 | 9% | 16 h | 5.8 h | 41k |
| May 22, 2020 | Tornadoes | 4,302 | 11% | 20 h | 18 h | 38k |
| Oct 29, 2020 | Hurricane Zeta | 2,098 | 5% | 16 h | 26 h | 21k |
| Nov 10, 2022 | No storm report | 3,713 | 9% | 6.2 h | 4.0 h | 19k |
| Dec 24, 2022 | Winter storm | 2,086 | 5% | 9.0 h | 4.0 h | 12k |
| Aug 29, 2025 | No storm report | 928 | 2% | 11 h | – | 10k |
| Oct 11, 2020 | No storm report | 1,613 | 4% | 8.0 h | – | 9.6k |
| May 30, 2022 | No storm report | 1,367 | 3% | 9.0 h | – | 9.5k |
| Dec 9, 2018 | Winter storm | 910 | 2% | 14 h | – | 8.6k |
| Apr 17, 2025 | No storm report | 2,712 | 7% | 3.5 h | 3.2 h | 8.5k |
| Aug 14, 2021 | No storm report | 2,542 | 6% | 3.2 h | 3.2 h | 7.7k |
| Sep 24, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 576 | 1% | 13 h | – | 7.1k |
| Feb 24, 2016 | No storm report | 1,143 | 3% | 11 h | – | 6.9k |
| Aug 1, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 1,325 | 3% | 5.5 h | – | 6.4k |
| Apr 6, 2017 | No storm report | 1,154 | 3% | 4.8 h | – | 5.5k |
| Nov 8, 2025 | No storm report | 4,074 | 10% | 1.8 h | 1.5 h | 5.0k |
| Jul 31, 2024 | No storm report | 2,529 | 6% | 2.2 h | 1.8 h | 4.8k |
| Apr 30, 2016 | No storm report | 1,968 | 5% | 6.5 h | – | 4.6k |
| Jul 29, 2023 | No storm report | 2,423 | 6% | 4.5 h | 2.8 h | 4.6k |
| Dec 18, 2025 | No storm report | 1,146 | 3% | 7.5 h | – | 4.4k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | No storm report | 879 | 2% | 6.5 h | – | 4.3k |
| Feb 23, 2022 | No storm report | 970 | 2% | 4.2 h | – | 4.0k |
| Aug 23, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 858 | 2% | 4.8 h | – | 3.9k |
| Nov 8, 2025 | No storm report | 5,450 | 14% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 3.9k |
| Jul 5, 2022 | No storm report | 1,955 | 5% | 2.0 h | – | 3.8k |
| Mar 24, 2017 | No storm report | 2,540 | 6% | 1.5 h | 1.5 h | 3.8k |
| Feb 2, 2016 | No storm report | 509 | 1% | 7.2 h | – | 3.7k |
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 Cherokee from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 87%
- No storm on record 7.9%
- Thunderstorms 3.0%
- Tornadoes 1.2%
- Winter storm 0.7%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Cherokee
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole South Carolina territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duke Energy Carolinas, LLC | Investor Owned | 220 | 141 | 1.26 | 13.5 | 582k |
| York Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 66 | 61 | 0.51 | 13.7 | 66k |
| Broad River Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 108 | 108 | – | 17.2 | 24k |
| City of Gaffney | Municipal | 98 | 49 | 1.67 | 12.3 | 6.2k |
| Lockhart Power Co | Investor Owned | – | – | – | 14.2 | 5.0k |
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
- Rutherford, NC 27 h
- Spartanburg 25 h
- Cherokee (this county) 10 h
- Cleveland, NC 10 h
- Union 4.1 h
- York 3.1 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 39,741 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 →