Power outage history
McCreary County Kentucky
11hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
39th most of 119 in Kentucky 1.7× 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 McCreary's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2021 was the worst well-recorded year, at 24 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
McCreary, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 15, 2021 | Ice storm | 5,336 | 50% | 6.0 d | 4.6 d | 218k |
| Mar 3, 2023 | Windstorm | 3,783 | 36% | 4.1 d | 46 h | 134k |
| May 26, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 3,129 | 30% | 3.0 d | 2.2 d | 90k |
| Apr 12, 2020 | Windstorm | 7,829 | 74% | 43 h | 21 h | 53k |
| Jan 16, 2022 | Winter storm | 1,385 | 13% | 2.1 d | 7.0 h | 31k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | No storm report | 2,820 | 27% | 42 h | 23 h | 28k |
| May 20, 2025 | No storm report | 1,900 | 18% | 21 h | 12 h | 25k |
| Oct 19, 2025 | No storm report | 2,227 | 21% | 17 h | 16 h | 18k |
| Mar 4, 2025 | No storm report | 1,519 | 14% | 16 h | 13 h | 15k |
| Jun 1, 2024 | No storm report | 688 | 7% | 2.8 d | 40 h | 14k |
| Jun 21, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 2,612 | 25% | 35 h | 9.5 h | 14k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | Windstorm | 1,366 | 13% | 29 h | 25 h | 14k |
| Jan 11, 2020 | No storm report | 2,841 | 27% | 15 h | 4.0 h | 12k |
| Oct 19, 2020 | No storm report | 3,590 | 34% | 2.8 h | 2.5 h | 8.3k |
| May 18, 2025 | No storm report | 585 | 6% | 16 h | 20 h | 8.0k |
| Aug 10, 2023 | No storm report | 1,200 | 11% | 5.5 h | 2.8 h | 6.6k |
| Mar 12, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 910 | 9% | 19 h | 14 h | 6.6k |
| Jul 12, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 2,561 | 24% | 5.0 h | 2.8 h | 5.8k |
| Jul 10, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 445 | 4% | 18 h | – | 5.6k |
| Jun 21, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 758 | 7% | 8.2 h | 14 h | 5.4k |
| May 14, 2021 | No storm report | 1,803 | 17% | 3.0 h | 6.2 h | 5.4k |
| Sep 21, 2022 | No storm report | 842 | 8% | 11 h | 48 min | 5.3k |
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 808 | 8% | 23 h | 14 h | 5.3k |
| Mar 16, 2025 | No storm report | 605 | 6% | 18 h | 28 h | 5.2k |
| Jul 8, 2016 | No storm report | 1,371 | 13% | 5.5 h | 5.0 h | 4.6k |
| Jul 21, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 994 | 9% | 5.2 h | 5.0 h | 3.8k |
| May 29, 2020 | No storm report | 1,029 | 10% | 7.2 h | 4.5 h | 3.7k |
| May 4, 2021 | No storm report | 1,060 | 10% | 3.0 h | 1.2 h | 2.9k |
| Mar 31, 2022 | Windstorm | 921 | 9% | 7.2 h | 5.2 h | 2.8k |
| Aug 30, 2019 | No storm report | 344 | 3% | 12 h | – | 2.8k |
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 McCreary from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 30%
- Ice storm 25%
- Windstorm 24%
- Thunderstorms 17%
- Winter storm 3.9%
- Tropical storm 0.7%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving McCreary
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 |
| South Kentucky Rural E C C | Cooperative | 1,368 | 314 | 2.99 | 13.6 | 65k |
| Cumberland Valley Electric, Inc. | Cooperative | 910 | 437 | 4.22 | 13.1 | 23k |
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
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 10,586 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 →