Power Out Map
– 0% of Lancaster out 0 customers out in Virginia

Power outage history

Lancaster County Virginia

18hours

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

47th most of 123 in Virginia 2.8× the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Michael · Oct 11, 2018 100% of customers out · 90% back in 2.7 days
Hours without power, average customer per year 18h / yr State average 8.7 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 6.0 Peaks over 10% of customers or 50,000 customers
Typical time to restore 90% 2hours Median across major outages, from the peak
Longest single outage 3.7days Mar 2, 2018, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 72% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2018 2.9 days without power, average customer
Electricity customers 5,333 ORNL customer model · 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 Lancaster'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

2018 was the worst well-recorded year, at 2.9 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Lancaster, hours without power per customer

LancasterUS median countyVirginia average
0 10 20 30 40 50 5.5 ’15 8.4 ’16 8.7 ’17 69 ’18 10 ’19 18 ’20 17 ’21 7.8 ’22 4.6 ’23 13 ’24 5.5 ’25 VA 8.7 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
Oct 11, 2018 Hurricane Michael 5,333 100% 3.4 d 2.7 d 198k
Mar 2, 2018 Windstorm 2,958 55% 3.7 d 2.4 d 107k
Aug 4, 2020 Hurricane Isaias 4,006 75% 3.0 d 31 h 68k
Feb 13, 2021 Ice storm 3,021 57% 2.2 d 33 h 42k
Dec 9, 2018 Winter storm 1,136 21% 29 h 23 h 21k
Aug 3, 2024 Thunderstorms 2,908 55% 13 h 9.0 h 18k
Apr 6, 2017 Thunderstorms 2,088 39% 13 h 9.5 h 14k
Sep 6, 2019 Hurricane Dorian 1,295 24% 12 h 10 h 12k
Oct 8, 2016 Hurricane Matthew 1,352 25% 20 h 8.2 h 11k
Aug 18, 2021 No storm report 1,909 36% 5.2 h 5.8 h 9.9k
Jan 3, 2022 Winter storm 555 10% 36 h 24 h 9.3k
May 4, 2021 Thunderstorms 695 13% 23 h 22 h 9.0k

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.

0% 25% 50% 75% 100% peak+24h+48h+72h+96h half back by +8h 90% by +24h

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

  • Tropical storm 39%
  • No storm on record 28%
  • Windstorm 15%
  • Ice storm 5.9%
  • Thunderstorms 5.8%
  • Winter storm 4.9%
  • Flooding 1.4%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Lancaster

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
Northern Neck Elec Coop, Inc Cooperative 129 129 1.14 16.0 18k

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 Virginia

Where it is darkest

Hours / yr64+

All Virginia 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 5,333 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 →