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

Power outage history

Mitchell County North Carolina

59hours

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

3rd most of 100 in North Carolina 9.0× the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Helene · Sep 27, 2024 100% of customers out · 90% back in 19.8 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 59h / yr State average 8.3 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 7.5 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 32.8days Hurricane Helene, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 89% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2024 16.4 days without power, average customer
Electricity customers 8,839 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 Mitchell'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

2024 was the worst well-recorded year, at 16.4 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Mitchell, hours without power per customer

MitchellUS median countyNorth Carolina average
0 10 20 30 40 50 11 ’15 6.7 ’16 11 ’17 12 ’18 7.8 ’19 10 ’20 10 ’21 7.8 ’22 17 ’23 394 ’24 15 ’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
Sep 26, 2024 Hurricane Helene 8,839 100% 32.8 d 19.8 d 3.4M
Apr 1, 2023 No storm report 8,043 91% 29 h 4.5 h 58k
Feb 11, 2025 Winter storm 2,612 30% 47 h 6.8 h 43k
Feb 27, 2015 No storm report 5,301 60% 8.2 h 8.2 h 43k
Aug 17, 2021 Tropical Storm Fred 2,718 31% 47 h 9.0 h 41k
Apr 5, 2018 No storm report 3,127 35% 17 h 17 h 36k
Apr 22, 2015 No storm report 5,306 60% 5.0 h 5.2 h 25k
Dec 23, 2022 Winter storm 1,558 18% 35 h 12 h 23k
Feb 12, 2020 No storm report 5,158 58% 4.0 h 3.5 h 21k
Sep 11, 2017 No storm report 1,196 14% 42 h 26 h 21k
Aug 7, 2020 No storm report 8,379 95% 17 h 1.5 h 20k
Oct 31, 2019 No storm report 3,200 36% 18 h 14 h 17k

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 +8h 90% by +16h

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

  • Tropical storm 85%
  • No storm on record 11%
  • Winter storm 2.5%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Mitchell

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 Progress Investor Owned 183 145 1.41 15.2 1.4M
Rutherford Elec Member Corp Cooperative 149 135 1.24 13.0 72k
French Broad Elec Member Corp Cooperative 144 – 2.40 16.2 36k

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 8,839 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 →