– 0% of Chatham out 0 customers out in North Carolina

Power outage history

Chatham County North Carolina

9.7hours

without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025

48th most of 100 in North Carolina 1.5× the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Michael · Oct 11, 2018 37% of customers out · 90% back in 3.1 days

Hours without power, average customer per year 9.7h / yr State average 8.3 h · national median 6.6 h

Major outages a year 3.3 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers

Typical time to restore 90% 5hours Median across major outages, from the peak

Longest single outage 4.0days Hurricane Michael, over 1% of customers out

Outage hours on storm days 65% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here

Worst year 2018 27 hours without power, average customer

Electricity customers 47,177 EAGLE-I 2024 count · 8 well-covered years

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 Chatham's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.

20152016201720182019202020212022202320242025

0%100% of customers out

Year by year

Hours in the dark, per customer

2018 was the worst well-recorded year, at 27 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Chatham, hours without power per customer

ChathamUS median countyNorth Carolina average

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
Oct 11, 2018	Hurricane Michael	17,228	37%	4.0 d	3.1 d	676k
Oct 8, 2016	Hurricane Matthew	11,654	25%	3.2 d	46 h	258k
Sep 30, 2022	Hurricane Ian	15,475	33%	47 h	17 h	251k
Feb 26, 2015	Winter storm	13,351	28%	39 h	27 h	210k
Oct 28, 2020	No storm report	17,868	38%	2.3 d	20 h	153k
Dec 23, 2022	No storm report	15,523	33%	31 h	3.5 h	128k
Sep 15, 2018	Hurricane Florence	4,647	10%	2.8 d	24 h	119k
Jan 17, 2018	Winter storm	6,314	13%	31 h	9.8 h	109k
Dec 9, 2018	Winter storm	7,952	17%	33 h	25 h	100k
Jul 6, 2025	Tropical Storm Chantal	8,540	18%	25 h	3.2 h	78k
Aug 8, 2024	Hurricane Debby	12,387	26%	28 h	2.0 h	57k
Sep 13, 2018	Hurricane Florence	9,895	21%	20 h	17 h	54k
Jul 7, 2025	Tropical Storm Chantal	7,604	16%	12 h	12 h	48k
Jun 17, 2022	No storm report	8,569	18%	22 h	48 min	38k
Jan 16, 2022	Winter storm	4,676	10%	24 h	9.5 h	33k
Jan 3, 2022	No storm report	5,173	11%	15 h	3.8 h	32k
Jan 9, 2024	Thunderstorms	5,000	11%	19 h	17 h	29k
Feb 7, 2020	Windstorm	6,081	13%	12 h	6.2 h	28k
Aug 8, 2018	Thunderstorms	6,137	13%	13 h	12 h	28k
Aug 7, 2023	Thunderstorms	4,755	10%	17 h	12 h	27k
Jun 26, 2015	No storm report	3,606	8%	12 h	9.5 h	26k
Jun 20, 2019	Thunderstorms	4,396	9%	20 h	18 h	26k
Mar 2, 2018	Windstorm	1,890	4%	19 h	–	24k
Aug 30, 2024	Thunderstorms	3,250	7%	9.8 h	2.8 h	23k
Feb 14, 2015	No storm report	2,259	5%	18 h	–	21k
Jun 30, 2023	Thunderstorms	4,699	10%	14 h	4.8 h	17k
Jun 29, 2016	Thunderstorms	1,708	4%	16 h	–	16k
Jul 9, 2023	Thunderstorms	4,580	10%	10 h	16 h	16k
Jul 1, 2023	Thunderstorms	5,603	12%	9.2 h	6.5 h	15k
Feb 6, 2020	Thunderstorms	3,759	8%	8.2 h	12 min	15k

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 Chatham from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

Tropical storm 43%
No storm on record 35%
Thunderstorms 11%
Winter storm 8.6%
Windstorm 1.8%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Chatham

As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole North Carolina 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 Carolinas, LLC	Investor Owned	216	172	1.35	13.4	2.0M
Duke Energy Progress	Investor Owned	183	145	1.41	15.2	1.4M
Randolph Electric Member Corp	Cooperative	225	108	2.16	16.1	32k
Piedmont Electric Member Corp	Cooperative	503	146	1.75	15.6	31k
Central Electric Membership Corp.	Cooperative	268	148	–	15.4	21k

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

Moore 14 h
Chatham (this county) 9.7 h
Orange 6.4 h
Alamance 5.9 h
Durham 5.5 h
Harnett 4.8 h
Lee 4.5 h
Randolph 4.2 h
Wake 3.0 h

Across North Carolina

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All North Carolina 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 47,177 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 →