Power outage history
Barnstable County Massachusetts
21hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
1st most of 14 in Massachusetts 3.2× 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 Barnstable'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 2.8 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Barnstable, 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 13, 2018 | Winter storm | 118,437 | 100% | 2.6 d | 2.0 d | 4.1M |
| Mar 2, 2018 | Windstorm | 103,060 | 87% | 3.3 d | 2.5 d | 3.6M |
| Oct 26, 2021 | Tropical Storm Wanda | 118,437 | 100% | 36 h | 41 h | 3.4M |
| Jan 29, 2022 | Winter storm | 85,305 | 72% | 41 h | 30 h | 2.0M |
| Oct 28, 2021 | No storm report | 92,294 | 78% | 2.0 d | 42 h | 1.9M |
| Oct 17, 2019 | Windstorm | 41,360 | 35% | 2.7 d | 2.1 d | 1.1M |
| Feb 9, 2017 | Winter storm | 50,097 | 42% | 29 h | 20 h | 473k |
| Oct 30, 2017 | Windstorm | 17,899 | 15% | 35 h | 32 h | 259k |
| Feb 13, 2024 | Winter storm | 25,127 | 21% | 16 h | 9.5 h | 206k |
| Dec 18, 2023 | Windstorm | 13,901 | 12% | 28 h | 21 h | 138k |
| Feb 7, 2020 | Windstorm | 18,757 | 16% | 12 h | 7.8 h | 109k |
| Jun 23, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 17,324 | 15% | 16 h | 11 h | 106k |
| May 31, 2025 | Windstorm | 24,294 | 21% | 9.0 h | 6.0 h | 106k |
| Dec 25, 2017 | Windstorm | 17,635 | 15% | 12 h | 9.8 h | 98k |
| Jun 28, 2015 | Windstorm | 14,403 | 12% | 12 h | 5.2 h | 77k |
| Feb 5, 2016 | Winter storm | 8,293 | 7% | 26 h | 19 h | 71k |
| Aug 4, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 21,573 | 18% | 8.8 h | 7.0 h | 63k |
| Mar 6, 2020 | Windstorm | 8,266 | 7% | 14 h | 5.5 h | 58k |
| Jul 9, 2021 | Hurricane Elsa | 12,324 | 10% | 8.0 h | 6.0 h | 52k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Windstorm | 6,833 | 6% | 15 h | 13 h | 46k |
| Feb 7, 2021 | Winter storm | 8,419 | 7% | 11 h | 10 h | 43k |
| Mar 5, 2018 | Windstorm | 3,452 | 3% | 16 h | – | 39k |
| Jan 4, 2018 | Windstorm | 12,316 | 10% | 10 h | 3.2 h | 37k |
| Jul 11, 2017 | No storm report | 17,336 | 15% | 2.8 h | 30 min | 35k |
| Mar 14, 2017 | Windstorm | 6,210 | 5% | 9.5 h | 5.5 h | 34k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Windstorm | 5,823 | 5% | 10 h | 12 h | 33k |
| May 22, 2025 | Windstorm | 16,358 | 14% | 6.0 h | 3.5 h | 30k |
| Jul 26, 2016 | No storm report | 13,812 | 12% | 3.5 h | 3.2 h | 29k |
| Aug 1, 2024 | No storm report | 9,148 | 8% | 3.8 h | 3.2 h | 27k |
| Jul 20, 2022 | No storm report | 8,535 | 7% | 3.2 h | 12 min | 26k |
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 Barnstable from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Winter storm 35%
- Windstorm 30%
- Tropical storm 19%
- No storm on record 15%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Barnstable
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Massachusetts territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSTAR Electric Company | Investor Owned | 113 | 66 | 0.81 | 21.5 | 1.3M |
| Massachusetts Electric Co | Investor Owned | 133 | 91 | 1.00 | 33.7 | 1.2M |
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 118,437 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 →