Power outage history
Breathitt County Kentucky
20hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
16th most of 119 in Kentucky 3.0× 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 Breathitt's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2022 was the worst well-recorded year, at 2.2 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Breathitt, 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 28, 2022 | Flooding | 3,078 | 39% | 10.4 d | 6.3 d | 323k |
| Jul 13, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 1,573 | 20% | 4.0 d | 2.7 d | 95k |
| Feb 15, 2021 | Ice storm | 1,867 | 24% | 4.0 d | 2.8 d | 72k |
| Jan 5, 2025 | Winter storm | 2,662 | 34% | 2.9 d | 40 h | 58k |
| Apr 12, 2020 | Windstorm | 1,694 | 21% | 2.8 d | 47 h | 55k |
| Mar 1, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 2,053 | 26% | 2.5 d | 28 h | 42k |
| Feb 15, 2025 | No storm report | 1,086 | 14% | 3.1 d | 2.2 d | 42k |
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 1,520 | 19% | 3.4 d | 2.2 d | 32k |
| Mar 3, 2023 | Windstorm | 2,804 | 35% | 2.1 d | 36 h | 31k |
| Dec 24, 2020 | Winter storm | 743 | 9% | 2.9 d | 2.6 d | 21k |
| May 16, 2025 | Flooding | 703 | 9% | 2.7 d | 2.1 d | 21k |
| Jun 23, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 2,840 | 36% | 45 h | 14 h | 20k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | No storm report | 1,406 | 18% | 2.1 d | 43 h | 19k |
| Sep 24, 2016 | No storm report | 2,792 | 35% | 6.5 h | 1.8 h | 18k |
| Feb 9, 2023 | No storm report | 1,041 | 13% | 25 h | 22 h | 16k |
| May 26, 2024 | No storm report | 1,163 | 15% | 2.1 d | 2.1 d | 15k |
| Jul 30, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 610 | 8% | 37 h | 29 h | 15k |
| Jul 21, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,449 | 18% | 17 h | 13 h | 14k |
| Sep 27, 2016 | No storm report | 1,902 | 24% | 6.0 h | 3.5 h | 11k |
| Apr 14, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 1,224 | 15% | 16 h | 13 h | 11k |
| Sep 28, 2016 | No storm report | 1,897 | 24% | 14 h | 12 h | 11k |
| Jul 9, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 1,405 | 18% | 19 h | 7.2 h | 8.9k |
| Dec 22, 2020 | No storm report | 1,950 | 25% | 5.2 h | 4.2 h | 8.6k |
| May 24, 2017 | No storm report | 861 | 11% | 10 h | 10 h | 8.1k |
| Feb 16, 2023 | Flooding | 651 | 8% | 43 h | 41 h | 8.0k |
| Jun 26, 2015 | No storm report | 550 | 7% | 15 h | 15 h | 7.9k |
| May 20, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 658 | 8% | 14 h | 14 h | 7.8k |
| Apr 4, 2018 | No storm report | 462 | 6% | 40 h | 30 h | 7.4k |
| Mar 12, 2018 | Winter storm | 788 | 10% | 12 h | 7.0 h | 7.4k |
| Apr 3, 2025 | Flooding | 737 | 9% | 33 h | 6.5 h | 7.4k |
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 Breathitt from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Flooding 34%
- No storm on record 33%
- Winter storm 8.2%
- Windstorm 8.2%
- Thunderstorms 6.8%
- Ice storm 6.6%
- Tropical storm 3.7%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Breathitt
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Kentucky territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kentucky Power Co | Investor Owned | 911 | 376 | 2.62 | 15.9 | 130k |
| Jackson Energy Coop Corp | Cooperative | 915 | 334 | 3.40 | 14.8 | 50k |
| Licking Valley Rural E C C | Cooperative | 386 | 235 | 2.58 | 15.2 | 17k |
| Big Sandy Rural Elec Coop Corp | Cooperative | 1,898 | 1,138 | 5.82 | 14.8 | 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.
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 7,915 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 →