Power outage history
Jackson County North Carolina
16hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
20th most of 100 in North Carolina 2.4× 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 Jackson's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2024 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.
Jackson, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 22,087 | 74% | 9.7 d | 11 h | 1.2M |
| Sep 11, 2017 | Hurricane Irma | 9,583 | 32% | 4.1 d | 3.1 d | 479k |
| Dec 8, 2018 | Winter storm | 5,849 | 19% | 3.7 d | 2.9 d | 159k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Flooding | 10,258 | 34% | 42 h | 31 h | 146k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Winter storm | 11,437 | 38% | 45 h | 13 h | 139k |
| Jan 16, 2022 | Winter storm | 5,832 | 19% | 2.2 d | 37 h | 98k |
| May 9, 2024 | Tornadoes | 11,418 | 38% | 36 h | 13 h | 97k |
| Jul 4, 2020 | No storm report | 16,133 | 54% | 12 h | 5.0 h | 92k |
| Dec 8, 2017 | Winter storm | 5,167 | 17% | 2.2 d | 28 h | 70k |
| Jul 8, 2022 | No storm report | 3,804 | 13% | 26 h | 6.8 h | 66k |
| Mar 16, 2025 | Windstorm | 8,904 | 30% | 34 h | 1.0 h | 64k |
| Mar 21, 2017 | No storm report | 3,805 | 13% | 22 h | 10 h | 61k |
| Nov 25, 2022 | No storm report | 13,578 | 45% | 4.8 h | 3.5 h | 57k |
| Mar 3, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 5,592 | 19% | 29 h | 23 h | 50k |
| Oct 29, 2020 | Hurricane Zeta | 3,022 | 10% | 40 h | 32 h | 48k |
| Jul 8, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 2,460 | 8% | 40 h | 24 h | 48k |
| May 28, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 3,439 | 11% | 24 h | 14 h | 39k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | No storm report | 4,611 | 15% | 26 h | 19 h | 34k |
| Apr 7, 2023 | No storm report | 8,626 | 29% | 4.2 h | 1.2 h | 30k |
| Aug 17, 2021 | Tropical Storm Fred | 3,457 | 12% | 24 h | 13 h | 30k |
| Jun 22, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 3,886 | 13% | 18 h | 16 h | 24k |
| Jan 11, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 3,321 | 11% | 20 h | 14 h | 24k |
| Aug 4, 2018 | No storm report | 2,204 | 7% | 9.0 h | 1.5 h | 19k |
| Jun 25, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 3,309 | 11% | 19 h | 17 h | 19k |
| Jul 7, 2022 | No storm report | 3,611 | 12% | 7.0 h | 6.0 h | 15k |
| Feb 26, 2015 | Winter storm | 1,659 | 6% | 14 h | 14 h | 15k |
| Apr 14, 2019 | No storm report | 1,736 | 6% | 14 h | 9.8 h | 15k |
| Jul 29, 2023 | No storm report | 1,801 | 6% | 14 h | 6.0 h | 14k |
| Dec 24, 2020 | Winter storm | 840 | 3% | 23 h | – | 13k |
| May 18, 2020 | No storm report | 2,672 | 9% | 6.8 h | 6.0 h | 13k |
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 Jackson from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 40%
- No storm on record 32%
- Winter storm 14%
- Thunderstorms 4.7%
- Flooding 4.7%
- Tornadoes 3.1%
- Windstorm 2.0%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Jackson
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 |
| Haywood Electric Member Corp | Cooperative | 776 | 554 | 5.09 | 16.9 | 30k |
| City of Highlands | NC | – | – | – | – | 25k |
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
- Transylvania 26 h
- Oconee, SC 22 h
- Haywood 17 h
- Jackson (this county) 16 h
- Macon 13 h
- Swain 13 h
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 30,036 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 →