Power Out Map
– 0% of Galax out 0 customers out in Virginia

Power outage history

Galax City Virginia

7.8hours

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

80th most of 123 in Virginia 1.2× the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Helene · Sep 27, 2024 71% of customers out · 90% back in 2.9 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 7.8h / yr State average 8.7 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 3.5 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 3hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 5.7days Hurricane Helene, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 80% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2024 33 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 5,393 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 Galax'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 33 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Galax, hours without power per customer

GalaxUS median countyVirginia average
0 5 10 15 20 25 2.9 ’15 1.2 ’16 5.1 ’17 9.1 ’18 2.0 ’19 2.4 ’20 1.6 ’21 3.3 ’22 3.6 ’23 33 ’24 8.1 ’25 VA 8.7 US 6.6

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 3,815 71% 5.7 d 2.9 d 166k
Feb 12, 2025 Winter storm 1,288 24% 2.3 d 25 h 30k
Nov 15, 2018 Ice storm 1,579 29% 3.1 d 2.1 d 24k
May 9, 2017 Thunderstorms 848 16% 16 h 16 h 11k
Oct 23, 2017 Thunderstorms 705 13% 46 h 26 h 7.5k
Oct 17, 2015 No storm report 3,790 70% 2.2 h 2.0 h 7.1k
Feb 13, 2018 No storm report 986 18% 5.2 h 1.0 h 5.2k
Jul 18, 2018 No storm report 623 12% 13 h 17 h 4.4k
Apr 1, 2023 Windstorm 716 13% 16 h 3.0 h 4.0k
Mar 7, 2018 No storm report 629 12% 7.0 h 4.8 h 3.0k
Jul 5, 2022 No storm report 546 10% 20 h 3.2 h 2.8k
Jan 6, 2025 Winter storm 855 16% 8.5 h 1.5 h 2.8k

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 +6h 90% by +14h

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

  • Tropical storm 57%
  • No storm on record 20%
  • Winter storm 11%
  • Ice storm 8.3%
  • Windstorm 3.3%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Galax

As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Virginia territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.

Utility Type Outage min / yr Excl. major storms Outages / yr Residential ¢/kWh Customers
Appalachian Power Co Investor Owned 1,116 328 2.36 17.2 468k

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 Virginia

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Virginia 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 5,393 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 →