Power outage history
Washington County Virginia
13hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
60th most of 123 in Virginia 2.0× 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
2024 was the worst well-recorded year, at 2.1 days 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 18,732 | 58% | 8.3 d | 5.1 d | 1.4M |
| Jun 17, 2022 | No storm report | 2,761 | 8% | 2.2 d | 2.1 d | 63k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | No storm report | 3,338 | 10% | 22 h | 17 h | 51k |
| Jan 11, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 2,367 | 7% | 41 h | 32 h | 50k |
| Jul 13, 2015 | No storm report | 3,139 | 10% | 39 h | 24 h | 44k |
| Jan 12, 2024 | Windstorm | 1,746 | 5% | 36 h | 12 h | 39k |
| May 17, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 2,278 | 7% | 33 h | 29 h | 38k |
| May 26, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 1,940 | 6% | 32 h | 30 h | 28k |
| Jul 31, 2018 | No storm report | 7,799 | 24% | 5.8 h | 5.2 h | 27k |
| Dec 9, 2018 | Winter storm | 1,994 | 6% | 30 h | 29 h | 25k |
| Jan 15, 2024 | Winter storm | 1,780 | 5% | 19 h | 7.5 h | 25k |
| Jun 16, 2016 | No storm report | 1,725 | 5% | 22 h | 17 h | 22k |
| Jun 28, 2021 | No storm report | 5,369 | 16% | 20 h | 2.5 h | 22k |
| Jul 4, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 1,537 | 5% | 17 h | – | 20k |
| Feb 12, 2024 | No storm report | 1,976 | 6% | 15 h | 14 h | 20k |
| Jul 18, 2015 | No storm report | 1,252 | 4% | 31 h | – | 19k |
| Mar 12, 2023 | No storm report | 6,619 | 20% | 3.2 h | 2.5 h | 19k |
| Feb 12, 2023 | No storm report | 1,189 | 4% | 27 h | – | 18k |
| Dec 24, 2020 | Winter storm | 1,939 | 6% | 24 h | 26 h | 18k |
| Oct 19, 2023 | No storm report | 1,815 | 6% | 13 h | 13 h | 17k |
| Jun 2, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,177 | 4% | 25 h | – | 16k |
| Apr 20, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 1,136 | 3% | 16 h | – | 16k |
| Mar 21, 2018 | Winter storm | 1,717 | 5% | 9.2 h | 4.0 h | 15k |
| Jun 2, 2018 | No storm report | 4,148 | 13% | 5.0 h | 30 min | 14k |
| Sep 4, 2016 | No storm report | 726 | 2% | 19 h | – | 13k |
| Oct 20, 2018 | No storm report | 1,797 | 6% | 7.0 h | 30 min | 12k |
| Mar 3, 2023 | No storm report | 2,176 | 7% | 18 h | 16 h | 12k |
| Jul 29, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 1,307 | 4% | 19 h | – | 12k |
| Jul 17, 2017 | No storm report | 1,700 | 5% | 8.0 h | 7.2 h | 11k |
| May 6, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 716 | 2% | 21 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 Washington from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 54%
- No storm on record 33%
- Thunderstorms 7.3%
- Winter storm 3.7%
- Windstorm 1.5%
- Flooding 1.0%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Washington
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 |
| Bristol Virginia Utilities | Municipal | 25 | 25 | 0.24 | 11.6 | 14k |
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
- Grayson 53 h
- Scott 31 h
- Russell 25 h
- Smyth 20 h
- Washington (this county) 13 h
- Sullivan, TN 5.9 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 32,558 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 →