Power outage history
Hanover County Virginia
7.8hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
81st most of 123 in Virginia 1.2× 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 Hanover's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2025 was the worst well-recorded year, at 15 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Hanover, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 16, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 27,009 | 54% | 2.7 d | 23 h | 659k |
| Oct 11, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 14,771 | 30% | 3.2 d | 37 h | 439k |
| Feb 13, 2021 | Ice storm | 15,936 | 32% | 2.3 d | 43 h | 301k |
| Jul 27, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 26,417 | 53% | 28 h | 20 h | 280k |
| Jun 19, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 15,637 | 32% | 26 h | 19 h | 148k |
| Mar 2, 2018 | Windstorm | 10,515 | 21% | 2.3 d | 13 h | 134k |
| Jan 6, 2022 | No storm report | 3,436 | 7% | 3.2 d | 3.6 d | 117k |
| Feb 12, 2025 | Winter storm | 8,475 | 17% | 31 h | 6.0 h | 109k |
| Jun 22, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 17,638 | 36% | 26 h | 12 h | 95k |
| Mar 14, 2017 | No storm report | 13,957 | 28% | 16 h | 8.2 h | 78k |
| Feb 7, 2020 | No storm report | 11,639 | 23% | 25 h | 7.5 h | 53k |
| Dec 9, 2017 | Winter storm | 5,492 | 11% | 23 h | 16 h | 33k |
| Sep 7, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 2,767 | 6% | 20 h | 19 h | 32k |
| May 14, 2018 | No storm report | 5,006 | 10% | 19 h | 18 h | 28k |
| Jul 26, 2016 | No storm report | 5,056 | 10% | 14 h | 11 h | 27k |
| Jun 26, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 4,327 | 9% | 11 h | 5.5 h | 24k |
| Jul 27, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 4,478 | 9% | 16 h | 15 h | 24k |
| Jun 20, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 4,245 | 9% | 15 h | 14 h | 22k |
| Oct 9, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 4,032 | 8% | 17 h | 4.8 h | 21k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 3,633 | 7% | 12 h | 18 h | 21k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | Flooding | 3,852 | 8% | 14 h | 13 h | 20k |
| Feb 24, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 3,368 | 7% | 13 h | 8.8 h | 17k |
| Jun 25, 2015 | No storm report | 2,847 | 6% | 14 h | 5.0 h | 16k |
| Oct 6, 2015 | No storm report | 6,812 | 14% | 6.0 h | 4.5 h | 16k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | No storm report | 5,841 | 12% | 7.8 h | 6.5 h | 16k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | Winter storm | 4,901 | 10% | 6.8 h | 3.0 h | 13k |
| Jul 25, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 4,343 | 9% | 5.8 h | 4.8 h | 13k |
| Jan 6, 2025 | Winter storm | 5,944 | 12% | 7.0 h | 4.8 h | 12k |
| Aug 2, 2020 | No storm report | 4,134 | 8% | 5.5 h | 3.0 h | 11k |
| May 20, 2021 | No storm report | 4,474 | 9% | 3.2 h | 3.2 h | 11k |
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 Hanover from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 29%
- No storm on record 26%
- Tropical storm 19%
- Ice storm 12%
- Winter storm 6.6%
- Windstorm 5.5%
- Flooding 1.8%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Hanover
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia Electric & Power Co | Investor Owned | 307 | 144 | 1.78 | 15.2 | 2.4M |
| Rappahannock Electric Coop | Cooperative | 428 | 220 | 2.50 | 15.5 | 173k |
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
- New Kent 18 h
- Goochland 18 h
- Louisa 16 h
- Henrico 10 h
- King William 8.6 h
- Hanover (this county) 7.8 h
- Caroline 7.3 h
- Spotsylvania 6.0 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 49,633 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 →