Power outage history
Polk County Florida
9.9hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
33rd most of 67 in Florida 1.5× 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 Polk'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 34 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Polk, 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 10, 2017 | Hurricane Irma | 130,427 | 42% | 9.1 d | 5.8 d | 13M |
| Oct 9, 2024 | Hurricane Milton | 209,976 | 67% | 5.0 d | 3.2 d | 9.7M |
| Sep 28, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 203,470 | 65% | 5.1 d | 3.2 d | 9.2M |
| Oct 18, 2019 | Tornadoes | 9,709 | 3% | 25 h | 26 h | 197k |
| Apr 11, 2021 | Tornadoes | 14,350 | 5% | 12 h | 23 h | 94k |
| Sep 26, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 10,815 | 3% | 10 h | 13 h | 48k |
| Oct 15, 2024 | No storm report | 5,596 | 2% | 16 h | 17 h | 42k |
| Jun 27, 2025 | No storm report | 12,364 | 4% | 4.8 h | 3.0 h | 28k |
| Apr 12, 2023 | No storm report | 7,365 | 2% | 4.8 h | 6.2 h | 27k |
| Jan 19, 2021 | No storm report | 7,229 | 2% | 3.8 h | 7.2 h | 27k |
| Apr 29, 2023 | No storm report | 5,940 | 2% | 5.5 h | 2.5 h | 25k |
| May 29, 2016 | No storm report | 9,411 | 3% | 3.0 h | 2.0 h | 25k |
| Apr 26, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 14,637 | 5% | 2.2 h | 1.8 h | 21k |
| Jun 3, 2016 | No storm report | 8,184 | 3% | 3.2 h | 3.0 h | 20k |
| Aug 5, 2024 | Hurricane Debby | 9,121 | 3% | 3.2 h | 5.8 h | 20k |
| May 4, 2025 | No storm report | 3,859 | 1% | 6.0 h | – | 18k |
| Jul 28, 2018 | No storm report | 6,703 | 2% | 3.8 h | 1.8 h | 18k |
| Nov 10, 2022 | Hurricane Nicole | 5,624 | 2% | 6.5 h | 3.5 h | 17k |
| Mar 26, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 9,579 | 3% | 2.0 h | 1.0 h | 17k |
| Feb 13, 2025 | No storm report | 9,153 | 3% | 2.0 h | 1.5 h | 17k |
| Jun 19, 2023 | No storm report | 6,421 | 2% | 3.0 h | 5.0 h | 16k |
| Jul 7, 2021 | Hurricane Elsa | 8,169 | 3% | 2.2 h | 2.2 h | 16k |
| Jul 14, 2025 | No storm report | 13,566 | 4% | 3.0 h | 2.0 h | 16k |
| Apr 5, 2020 | No storm report | 7,678 | 2% | 3.5 h | 3.2 h | 15k |
| Jun 12, 2024 | No storm report | 5,228 | 2% | 2.8 h | 6.5 h | 14k |
| May 10, 2025 | No storm report | 7,526 | 2% | 2.0 h | 1.8 h | 14k |
| Aug 14, 2024 | No storm report | 6,339 | 2% | 2.2 h | 2.2 h | 14k |
| Jun 9, 2024 | No storm report | 6,194 | 2% | 4.0 h | 3.5 h | 14k |
| May 24, 2025 | No storm report | 6,426 | 2% | 3.2 h | 3.8 h | 13k |
| Jan 17, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 6,559 | 2% | 2.5 h | 4.8 h | 13k |
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 Polk from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 95%
- No storm on record 3.8%
- Tornadoes 1.5%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Polk
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Florida territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duke Energy Florida, LLC | Investor Owned | 87 | 82 | 0.97 | 18.4 | 1.8M |
| Tampa Electric Co | Investor Owned | 112 | 79 | 1.85 | 17.3 | 769k |
| Withlacoochee River Elec Coop | Cooperative | 106 | 106 | 1.45 | 13.7 | 232k |
| City of Lakeland | Municipal | 63 | 63 | 1.07 | 11.7 | 123k |
| Peace River Electric Coop, Inc | Cooperative | 155 | 155 | 1.62 | 12.8 | 62k |
| City of Fort Meade | FL | – | – | – | – | 29k |
| City of Bartow | Municipal | 25 | 25 | 0.31 | 11.7 | 12k |
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
- Highlands 21 h
- Hardee 16 h
- Manatee 14 h
- Polk (this county) 9.9 h
- Okeechobee 7.6 h
- Pasco 7.4 h
- Orange 6.7 h
- Hillsborough 6.6 h
- Lake 5.4 h
- Sumter 3.4 h
- Osceola 2.5 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 313,954 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 →