Power outage history
Arlington County Virginia
4.5hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
110th most of 123 in Virginia 32% 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 Arlington's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2023 was the worst well-recorded year, at 7.3 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Arlington, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 29, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 34,068 | 31% | 44 h | 28 h | 533k |
| Mar 2, 2018 | Windstorm | 14,663 | 13% | 2.6 d | 44 h | 410k |
| May 23, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 35,742 | 32% | 46 h | 24 h | 367k |
| Jun 19, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 11,294 | 10% | 30 h | 28 h | 122k |
| May 22, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 11,347 | 10% | 19 h | 18 h | 92k |
| Jul 1, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 11,238 | 10% | 18 h | 15 h | 86k |
| Feb 12, 2017 | Windstorm | 6,577 | 6% | 17 h | 19 h | 68k |
| Aug 22, 2023 | No storm report | 10,293 | 9% | 8.5 h | 4.5 h | 57k |
| Jul 22, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 10,670 | 10% | 20 h | 19 h | 48k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | Winter storm | 5,286 | 5% | 20 h | 30 h | 46k |
| Jun 5, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 12,142 | 11% | 4.5 h | 4.0 h | 46k |
| Aug 10, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 5,215 | 5% | 12 h | 15 h | 36k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | Windstorm | 3,528 | 3% | 17 h | – | 33k |
| May 24, 2024 | No storm report | 2,570 | 2% | 16 h | – | 29k |
| Mar 23, 2025 | No storm report | 8,214 | 7% | 8.0 h | 7.8 h | 26k |
| Jul 14, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 8,148 | 7% | 5.2 h | 4.2 h | 24k |
| Aug 7, 2019 | No storm report | 4,367 | 4% | 9.5 h | – | 22k |
| Aug 15, 2021 | Flooding | 3,182 | 3% | 13 h | – | 21k |
| Jul 1, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 3,597 | 3% | 9.2 h | – | 20k |
| Apr 30, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 6,286 | 6% | 5.0 h | 6.2 h | 19k |
| Oct 19, 2016 | No storm report | 6,739 | 6% | 3.2 h | 5.5 h | 18k |
| Apr 22, 2023 | No storm report | 5,057 | 5% | 4.5 h | 4.2 h | 18k |
| Aug 1, 2024 | No storm report | 4,515 | 4% | 5.5 h | – | 17k |
| Jul 23, 2024 | No storm report | 2,993 | 3% | 5.8 h | – | 15k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | Windstorm | 5,245 | 5% | 4.8 h | 5.0 h | 14k |
| May 24, 2025 | No storm report | 4,705 | 4% | 4.8 h | – | 14k |
| Jun 24, 2024 | No storm report | 2,907 | 3% | 6.2 h | – | 13k |
| Sep 26, 2018 | No storm report | 11,203 | 10% | 2.0 h | 1.8 h | 13k |
| Apr 2, 2016 | Windstorm | 1,872 | 2% | 9.0 h | – | 13k |
| Sep 15, 2021 | No storm report | 5,479 | 5% | 4.0 h | 3.5 h | 12k |
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 Arlington from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Thunderstorms 54%
- No storm on record 24%
- Windstorm 18%
- Winter storm 2.4%
- Flooding 1.1%
- Tropical storm 0.6%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Arlington
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole Virginia 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 | 307 | 144 | 1.78 | 15.2 | 2.4M |
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
- Falls Church 7.5 h
- Alexandria 4.9 h
- Arlington (this county) 4.5 h
- Fairfax 3.5 h
- Montgomery, MD 2.8 h
- District of Columbia, DC 2.1 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 111,055 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 →