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

Power outage history

Wise County Virginia

19hours

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

43rd most of 123 in Virginia 2.9× the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Helene · Sep 27, 2024 100% of customers out · 90% back in 4.2 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 19h / yr State average 8.7 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 5.0 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 5hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 7.1days Hurricane Helene, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 62% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2024 2.8 days without power, average customer
Electricity customers 10,626 EAGLE-I 2024 count · 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 Wise'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 2.8 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Wise, hours without power per customer

WiseUS median countyVirginia average
0 20 40 60 80 12 ’15 9.1 ’16 9.7 ’17 13 ’18 4.9 ’19 9.8 ’20 11 ’21 21 ’22 10 ’23 66 ’24 14 ’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 26, 2024 Hurricane Helene 10,626 100% 7.1 d 4.2 d 581k
Jun 17, 2022 Thunderstorms 6,725 63% 3.1 d 25 h 98k
May 17, 2025 Thunderstorms 4,026 38% 42 h 33 h 41k
Apr 12, 2020 No storm report 2,203 21% 39 h 24 h 37k
Dec 9, 2018 Winter storm 2,097 20% 2.2 d 35 h 36k
Apr 1, 2023 No storm report 1,864 18% 31 h 26 h 24k
Mar 1, 2017 No storm report 6,532 61% 4.2 h 3.5 h 23k
Jan 8, 2015 No storm report 6,745 63% 9.5 h 5.5 h 21k
Jul 13, 2015 Thunderstorms 3,595 34% 23 h 14 h 21k
Jun 5, 2021 No storm report 7,462 70% 3.0 h 4.8 h 19k
May 9, 2021 No storm report 1,367 13% 25 h 19 h 18k
Jul 28, 2022 Flooding 991 9% 41 h 34 h 14k

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 +4h 90% by +24h

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

  • Tropical storm 43%
  • No storm on record 38%
  • Thunderstorms 13%
  • Winter storm 3.9%
  • Flooding 1.8%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Wise

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
Kentucky Utilities Co Investor Owned 327 142 1.90 15.3 23k
Powell Valley Electric Coop Cooperative 180 162 4.59 12.1 6.6k

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 10,626 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 →