Power Out Map
– 0% of Chowan out 0 customers out in North Carolina

Power outage history

Chowan County North Carolina

1.7hours

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

99th most of 100 in North Carolina 75% below the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Isaias · Aug 4, 2020 27% of customers out · 90% back in 32 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 1.7h / yr State average 8.3 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 1.4 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 3hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 47hours Hurricane Isaias, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 57% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2020 6.5 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 12,047 ORNL customer model · 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 Chowan'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

2020 was the worst well-recorded year, at 6.5 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Chowan, hours without power per customer

ChowanUS median countyNorth Carolina average
0 2 4 6 8 10 ’15 2.7 ’16 0.5 ’17 0.2 ’18 1.8 ’19 6.5 ’20 0.3 ’21 0.9 ’22 1.6 ’23 1.5 ’24 0.4 ’25 NC 8.3 US 6.6

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
Aug 4, 2020 Hurricane Isaias 3,308 27% 47 h 32 h 55k
Oct 8, 2016 Hurricane Matthew 754 6% 27 h 7.5 h 16k
Jul 18, 2023 No storm report 2,338 19% 7.0 h 6.5 h 16k
Jan 9, 2024 No storm report 2,351 20% 4.2 h 11 h 9.4k
Oct 10, 2016 Flooding 1,558 13% 5.0 h 3.5 h 7.2k
Jul 13, 2020 Thunderstorms 1,609 13% 4.0 h 3.8 h 6.3k
Sep 5, 2019 Hurricane Dorian 609 5% 21 h 13 h 5.7k
Dec 16, 2020 No storm report 1,007 8% 8.0 h 3.2 h 5.6k
Nov 1, 2019 No storm report 1,687 14% 2.8 h 2.5 h 3.8k
Sep 3, 2016 Hurricane Hermine 1,778 15% 1.8 h 1.8 h 3.0k
Nov 15, 2024 No storm report 1,856 15% 2.8 h 2.8 h 2.9k
Oct 27, 2015 No storm report 979 8% 2.8 h 2.8 h 2.7k

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.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100% peak+24h+48h+72h+96h half back by +4h 90% by +4h

When it happens

The outage clock

Customer-hours out by month (rings, January innermost) and local hour, 2018–2025.

00061218 Jan inside

What was happening

Weather behind the outages

Each outage is matched to NOAA storm reports for Chowan from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.

  • Tropical storm 48%
  • No storm on record 43%
  • Thunderstorms 7.5%
  • Winter storm 1.4%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Chowan

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
Virginia Electric & Power Co Investor Owned 286 137 1.49 12.7 109k
Town of Edenton NC – – – 11.9 41k
Albemarle Electric Member Corp Cooperative 184 63 0.81 15.2 13k
Roanoke Electric Member Corp Cooperative 179 179 1.48 20.7 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.

Next door

Neighbouring counties

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 12,047 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 →