Power outage history
Raleigh County West Virginia
22hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
21st most of 55 in West Virginia 3.4× 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 Raleigh's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2018 was the worst well-recorded year, at 43 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Raleigh, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 8, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 22,865 | 90% | 4.6 d | 2.2 d | 762k |
| Nov 15, 2018 | Ice storm | 9,517 | 38% | 5.5 d | 4.4 d | 493k |
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 10,250 | 41% | 3.5 d | 2.8 d | 353k |
| Mar 1, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 6,974 | 28% | 3.9 d | 3.1 d | 255k |
| Oct 20, 2018 | Windstorm | 5,566 | 22% | 2.9 d | 2.4 d | 170k |
| May 26, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 6,744 | 27% | 2.7 d | 47 h | 163k |
| Jan 5, 2025 | Winter storm | 7,555 | 30% | 2.6 d | 39 h | 130k |
| Mar 12, 2018 | Winter storm | 4,416 | 17% | 35 h | 31 h | 99k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | Windstorm | 5,514 | 22% | 2.0 d | 43 h | 92k |
| Jul 28, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 5,999 | 24% | 2.2 d | 44 h | 92k |
| Mar 26, 2019 | No storm report | 8,625 | 34% | 22 h | 6.0 h | 58k |
| Feb 24, 2019 | Windstorm | 3,245 | 13% | 33 h | 29 h | 45k |
| Oct 31, 2019 | No storm report | 3,122 | 12% | 32 h | 30 h | 44k |
| Jan 12, 2024 | Windstorm | 2,177 | 9% | 34 h | 27 h | 42k |
| Apr 12, 2020 | Windstorm | 5,875 | 23% | 21 h | 15 h | 42k |
| Jun 22, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 2,320 | 9% | 26 h | 13 h | 42k |
| Jun 17, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 2,741 | 11% | 31 h | 25 h | 42k |
| Jun 23, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 4,195 | 17% | 36 h | 6.8 h | 40k |
| Dec 19, 2025 | Windstorm | 3,937 | 16% | 19 h | 13 h | 40k |
| Feb 21, 2015 | No storm report | 2,720 | 11% | 26 h | 22 h | 39k |
| Jun 13, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,695 | 7% | 44 h | 32 h | 39k |
| Aug 1, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 3,944 | 16% | 22 h | 18 h | 38k |
| Jun 5, 2017 | Flooding | 2,853 | 11% | 27 h | 18 h | 32k |
| Jan 8, 2024 | Windstorm | 2,112 | 8% | 39 h | 30 h | 32k |
| Apr 3, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 4,196 | 17% | 22 h | 16 h | 31k |
| Jan 23, 2015 | No storm report | 2,138 | 8% | 40 h | 32 h | 31k |
| Jun 1, 2023 | No storm report | 3,833 | 15% | 30 h | 29 h | 30k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | Winter storm | 1,022 | 4% | 2.3 d | – | 25k |
| Sep 30, 2016 | No storm report | 577 | 2% | 46 h | – | 25k |
| Jul 14, 2015 | Flooding | 1,773 | 7% | 35 h | 8.8 h | 24k |
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 Raleigh from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 40%
- Windstorm 14%
- Ice storm 13%
- Thunderstorms 13%
- Tropical storm 10.0%
- Winter storm 8.4%
- Flooding 0.9%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Raleigh
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole West 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 | 1,035 | 546 | 2.98 | 17.0 | 348k |
| Black Diamond Power Co | Investor Owned | – | – | – | 20.1 | 3.2k |
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 25,284 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 →