Power outage history
Lee County Kentucky
23hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
14th most of 119 in Kentucky 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 Lee's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2023 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.
Lee, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 3, 2023 | Windstorm | 3,249 | 82% | 4.9 d | 5.5 h | 128k |
| Feb 15, 2021 | Ice storm | 1,636 | 41% | 8.1 d | 6.9 d | 125k |
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 2,601 | 66% | 4.4 d | 3.1 d | 100k |
| Jan 5, 2025 | Winter storm | 1,626 | 41% | 2.7 d | 43 h | 45k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | Windstorm | 1,620 | 41% | 2.2 d | 27 h | 21k |
| Mar 1, 2021 | Flooding | 174 | 4% | 6.8 d | – | 20k |
| Jan 16, 2022 | Winter storm | 1,007 | 25% | 3.1 d | 2.2 d | 19k |
| Jan 18, 2016 | No storm report | 3,417 | 86% | 9.8 h | 9.8 h | 17k |
| Jul 18, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 975 | 25% | 32 h | 31 h | 15k |
| Jun 25, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 930 | 23% | 46 h | 34 h | 13k |
| Jul 20, 2018 | No storm report | 2,273 | 57% | 19 h | 8.8 h | 13k |
| May 16, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 842 | 21% | 37 h | 29 h | 10k |
| Jul 13, 2015 | No storm report | 2,308 | 58% | 23 h | 1.5 h | 6.8k |
| Nov 14, 2018 | No storm report | 1,850 | 47% | 3.5 h | 3.5 h | 6.5k |
| Jan 11, 2020 | No storm report | 2,494 | 63% | 17 h | 1.8 h | 6.5k |
| Mar 1, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 977 | 25% | 8.8 h | 6.0 h | 5.9k |
| May 7, 2016 | No storm report | 813 | 21% | 7.5 h | 5.2 h | 5.3k |
| Mar 25, 2023 | No storm report | 408 | 10% | 26 h | 30 min | 5.2k |
| Dec 12, 2019 | No storm report | 3,376 | 85% | 2.8 h | 1.0 h | 4.9k |
| May 27, 2017 | No storm report | 1,100 | 28% | 6.8 h | 4.5 h | 4.8k |
| May 20, 2025 | No storm report | 341 | 9% | 21 h | 11 h | 4.8k |
| May 26, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 454 | 11% | 21 h | 13 h | 4.0k |
| Apr 4, 2018 | No storm report | 1,406 | 36% | 14 h | 12 min | 4.0k |
| Feb 3, 2025 | No storm report | 172 | 4% | 22 h | – | 3.7k |
| Dec 18, 2016 | No storm report | 679 | 17% | 6.0 h | 3.8 h | 3.6k |
| Jan 20, 2019 | No storm report | 717 | 18% | 5.2 h | 5.2 h | 3.6k |
| Jun 19, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 350 | 9% | 17 h | 17 h | 3.4k |
| Jul 27, 2022 | Flooding | 574 | 14% | 12 h | 6.8 h | 3.4k |
| Jul 23, 2017 | No storm report | 1,468 | 37% | 3.2 h | 2.0 h | 3.4k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | No storm report | 111 | 3% | 39 h | – | 3.3k |
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 Lee from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 23%
- Windstorm 23%
- Ice storm 19%
- Tropical storm 15%
- Winter storm 9.7%
- Thunderstorms 7.8%
- Flooding 3.6%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Lee
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 Utilities Co | Investor Owned | 197 | 89 | 1.14 | 11.9 | 454k |
| 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 |
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 3,961 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 →