Power outage history
Nueces County Texas
8.1hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
139th most of 240 in Texas 1.2× 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 Nueces's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2021 was the worst well-recorded year, at 26 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Nueces, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 14, 2021 | Ice storm | 53,743 | 33% | 4.9 d | 3.5 d | 3.4M |
| Jul 25, 2020 | Hurricane Hanna | 41,722 | 26% | 2.4 d | 35 h | 990k |
| Aug 22, 2023 | Tropical Storm Harold | 18,617 | 11% | 22 h | 12 h | 138k |
| Dec 8, 2017 | Winter storm | 19,757 | 12% | 16 h | 13 h | 135k |
| May 12, 2015 | Flooding | 22,239 | 14% | 17 h | 7.8 h | 126k |
| Apr 14, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 18,418 | 11% | 16 h | 12 h | 113k |
| Jul 31, 2019 | No storm report | 14,354 | 9% | 13 h | 12 h | 91k |
| Jan 21, 2025 | Winter storm | 8,037 | 5% | 21 h | 16 h | 78k |
| May 3, 2025 | No storm report | 8,547 | 5% | 12 h | 7.2 h | 62k |
| Aug 25, 2017 | Hurricane Harvey | 4,367 | 3% | 20 h | – | 61k |
| May 16, 2020 | Flooding | 9,965 | 6% | 9.5 h | 12 h | 53k |
| May 22, 2022 | No storm report | 8,709 | 5% | 15 h | 10 h | 50k |
| Mar 2, 2023 | Windstorm | 12,392 | 8% | 7.2 h | 7.2 h | 50k |
| May 8, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 5,602 | 3% | 18 h | 27 h | 49k |
| May 25, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 9,879 | 6% | 8.8 h | 8.0 h | 44k |
| Sep 14, 2020 | No storm report | 8,310 | 5% | 5.0 h | 3.0 h | 40k |
| May 15, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 15,286 | 9% | 6.2 h | 4.5 h | 35k |
| May 24, 2015 | Flooding | 10,654 | 7% | 9.5 h | 10 h | 34k |
| Apr 23, 2023 | Flooding | 8,129 | 5% | 7.2 h | 6.8 h | 34k |
| May 18, 2021 | No storm report | 8,714 | 5% | 8.8 h | 8.2 h | 33k |
| May 3, 2025 | No storm report | 9,956 | 6% | 4.8 h | 2.0 h | 32k |
| Apr 11, 2022 | Windstorm | 7,894 | 5% | 7.0 h | 5.5 h | 29k |
| Dec 9, 2019 | No storm report | 5,313 | 3% | 8.0 h | 3.8 h | 28k |
| Jun 25, 2019 | No storm report | 9,019 | 6% | 3.0 h | 1.8 h | 26k |
| Aug 28, 2019 | No storm report | 11,929 | 7% | 5.2 h | 5.8 h | 25k |
| Apr 17, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 7,357 | 5% | 5.8 h | 8.8 h | 24k |
| Mar 24, 2018 | No storm report | 4,839 | 3% | 7.8 h | – | 24k |
| Aug 18, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 4,119 | 3% | 12 h | – | 24k |
| Jun 24, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 13,536 | 8% | 3.5 h | 3.0 h | 23k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Winter storm | 5,481 | 3% | 7.8 h | 8.5 h | 22k |
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 Nueces from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Ice storm 50%
- No storm on record 24%
- Tropical storm 16%
- Thunderstorms 4.0%
- Flooding 2.2%
- Winter storm 1.6%
- Windstorm 1.5%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Nueces
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Texas territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nueces Electric Cooperative | Cooperative | 411 | 114 | 1.90 | 11.3 | 50k |
| San Patricio Electric Coop Inc | Cooperative | 240 | 240 | 2.20 | 14.2 | 10k |
| AEP Texas Central Company | Investor Owned | 205 | 155 | 1.76 | – | – |
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
- Aransas 16 h
- Jim Wells 11 h
- San Patricio 9.8 h
- Nueces (this county) 8.1 h
- Kleberg 6.0 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 162,267 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 →