Power outage history
Smith County Tennessee
0.5hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
93% 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 Smith's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2023 was the worst well-recorded year, at 56 min for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Smith, 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 31, 2018 | No storm report | 437 | 5% | 2.4 d | 2.4 d | 25k |
| Mar 23, 2019 | No storm report | 3,448 | 40% | 2.5 h | 2.5 h | 8.6k |
| Sep 29, 2018 | No storm report | 3,368 | 39% | 2.2 h | 2.2 h | 7.6k |
| May 27, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 1,392 | 16% | 11 h | 3.0 h | 5.1k |
| Jan 2, 2018 | No storm report | 3,378 | 39% | 1.2 h | 1.2 h | 4.2k |
| Mar 7, 2019 | No storm report | 1,425 | 17% | 2.8 h | 2.8 h | 3.9k |
| Jan 10, 2017 | No storm report | 438 | 5% | 6.5 h | 6.5 h | 2.8k |
| Mar 4, 2015 | Winter storm | 402 | 5% | 6.2 h | – | 2.5k |
| Feb 3, 2016 | No storm report | 1,378 | 16% | 1.8 h | 1.8 h | 2.4k |
| Nov 12, 2018 | No storm report | 1,400 | 16% | 1.5 h | 1.5 h | 2.1k |
| Feb 16, 2015 | No storm report | 1,356 | 16% | 1.5 h | 1.5 h | 2.0k |
| Mar 3, 2020 | Tornadoes | 156 | 2% | 15 h | – | 2.0k |
| Dec 11, 2021 | Tornadoes | 245 | 3% | 8.0 h | – | 1.7k |
| Nov 9, 2016 | No storm report | 396 | 5% | 4.0 h | – | 1.6k |
| Jul 29, 2015 | No storm report | 1,364 | 16% | 1.0 h | 30 min | 1.4k |
| Jun 19, 2018 | No storm report | 1,399 | 16% | 48 min | 48 min | 1.0k |
| Aug 2, 2016 | No storm report | 1,380 | 16% | 48 min | 48 min | 1.0k |
| Dec 18, 2025 | No storm report | 182 | 2% | 6.2 h | – | 806 |
| Apr 13, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 219 | 3% | 4.2 h | – | 806 |
| May 3, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 192 | 2% | 5.5 h | – | 707 |
| Oct 3, 2017 | No storm report | 1,414 | 16% | 30 min | 30 min | 707 |
| Sep 1, 2018 | No storm report | 398 | 5% | 1.8 h | – | 696 |
| Jun 24, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 350 | 4% | 1.5 h | – | 525 |
| Mar 11, 2015 | No storm report | 400 | 5% | 1.2 h | – | 500 |
| Jun 11, 2017 | No storm report | 396 | 5% | 1.2 h | – | 495 |
| May 16, 2025 | No storm report | 93 | 1% | 4.5 h | – | 418 |
| Aug 6, 2017 | No storm report | 401 | 5% | 1.0 h | – | 401 |
| Mar 16, 2015 | No storm report | 400 | 5% | 1.0 h | – | 400 |
| Sep 25, 2019 | No storm report | 137 | 2% | 2.8 h | – | 377 |
| Jun 3, 2023 | No storm report | 146 | 2% | 2.5 h | – | 365 |
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 Smith from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 91%
- Tornadoes 5.9%
- Thunderstorms 3.3%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Smith
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Tennessee territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Middle Tennessee E M C | Cooperative | 50 | 48 | 0.93 | 12.5 | 312k |
| Upper Cumberland E M C | Cooperative | 344 | 255 | – | 13.7 | 46k |
| Tri-County Elec Member Corp (TN) | Cooperative | 528 | 239 | 3.91 | 12.9 | 25k |
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.
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 8,588 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 →