Power outage history
Beaufort County South Carolina
3.6hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
39th most of 46 in South Carolina 44% below 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 Beaufort'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 14 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Beaufort, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 8, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 47,719 | 37% | 6.1 d | 5.1 d | 3.1M |
| Sep 26, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 55,188 | 43% | 4.0 d | 24 h | 1.4M |
| Sep 11, 2017 | Hurricane Irma | 37,719 | 30% | 2.8 d | 48 h | 714k |
| Oct 7, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 47,989 | 38% | 19 h | 13 h | 548k |
| Sep 5, 2019 | Hurricane Dorian | 22,756 | 18% | 38 h | 27 h | 348k |
| Jul 8, 2021 | Hurricane Elsa | 16,374 | 13% | 16 h | 11 h | 101k |
| Oct 10, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 16,371 | 13% | 19 h | 13 h | 90k |
| Aug 30, 2023 | Hurricane Idalia | 9,267 | 7% | 20 h | 23 h | 85k |
| Aug 5, 2024 | Hurricane Debby | 14,206 | 11% | 23 h | 18 h | 79k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | Windstorm | 18,203 | 14% | 6.8 h | 4.0 h | 36k |
| Jul 10, 2022 | No storm report | 15,283 | 12% | 3.0 h | 3.0 h | 34k |
| Mar 29, 2023 | No storm report | 15,577 | 12% | 2.0 h | 1.8 h | 30k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 9,896 | 8% | 7.0 h | 7.0 h | 29k |
| Apr 30, 2023 | Windstorm | 9,794 | 8% | 5.5 h | 4.2 h | 23k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | Windstorm | 9,108 | 7% | 5.0 h | 4.0 h | 21k |
| Mar 31, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 7,481 | 6% | 3.5 h | 1.8 h | 20k |
| Jan 24, 2019 | No storm report | 12,283 | 10% | 2.2 h | 1.8 h | 18k |
| Apr 10, 2019 | No storm report | 2,851 | 2% | 6.0 h | – | 15k |
| Apr 19, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 4,116 | 3% | 5.2 h | – | 14k |
| Mar 6, 2017 | No storm report | 2,898 | 2% | 4.2 h | – | 12k |
| Sep 30, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 2,853 | 2% | 8.0 h | – | 11k |
| Aug 8, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 9,527 | 7% | 2.0 h | 1.5 h | 11k |
| Dec 19, 2018 | No storm report | 2,331 | 2% | 4.5 h | – | 10k |
| Mar 6, 2018 | No storm report | 1,815 | 1% | 5.0 h | – | 9.1k |
| Jun 9, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 6,130 | 5% | 2.2 h | 2.2 h | 8.8k |
| Jun 11, 2015 | No storm report | 1,813 | 1% | 4.8 h | – | 8.6k |
| Feb 6, 2024 | No storm report | 14,293 | 11% | 48 min | 12 min | 8.4k |
| Apr 12, 2024 | No storm report | 7,611 | 6% | 1.2 h | 2.0 h | 8.2k |
| Mar 20, 2021 | No storm report | 2,697 | 2% | 3.0 h | – | 8.1k |
| Nov 12, 2017 | No storm report | 1,506 | 1% | 5.5 h | – | 8.0k |
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 Beaufort from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 79%
- No storm on record 13%
- Thunderstorms 4.4%
- Windstorm 3.4%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Beaufort
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole South 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dominion Energy South Carolina, Inc | Investor Owned | 131 | 81 | 1.34 | 16.4 | 713k |
| Palmetto Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 51 | 38 | 0.76 | 14.4 | 70k |
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
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 127,289 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 →