Power outage history
Newport News City Virginia
5.0hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
104th most of 123 in Virginia 23% 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 Newport News's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2020 was the worst well-recorded year, at 12 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Newport News, 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 11, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 29,961 | 35% | 2.7 d | 47 h | 795k |
| Aug 4, 2020 | Hurricane Isaias | 32,625 | 38% | 2.5 d | 2.1 d | 788k |
| Oct 8, 2016 | Hurricane Matthew | 23,363 | 28% | 2.7 d | 34 h | 542k |
| Sep 30, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 11,607 | 14% | 25 h | 6.5 h | 101k |
| Apr 15, 2019 | Thunderstorms | 8,578 | 10% | 13 h | 9.8 h | 56k |
| Feb 7, 2020 | No storm report | 4,427 | 5% | 13 h | 10 h | 38k |
| Sep 3, 2016 | Hurricane Hermine | 12,516 | 15% | 11 h | 3.5 h | 37k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | No storm report | 7,806 | 9% | 13 h | 5.0 h | 35k |
| Apr 19, 2019 | Tornadoes | 6,492 | 8% | 14 h | 18 h | 26k |
| Jun 3, 2020 | No storm report | 5,679 | 7% | 6.5 h | 5.0 h | 20k |
| Aug 2, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 6,321 | 7% | 7.5 h | 7.8 h | 19k |
| Jul 31, 2025 | Flooding | 3,413 | 4% | 9.2 h | – | 19k |
| Sep 8, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 3,229 | 4% | 7.2 h | – | 16k |
| May 16, 2020 | No storm report | 1,716 | 2% | 9.8 h | – | 16k |
| Jun 20, 2024 | No storm report | 5,585 | 7% | 5.0 h | 4.0 h | 15k |
| Aug 7, 2018 | No storm report | 6,496 | 8% | 3.8 h | 2.0 h | 15k |
| Sep 22, 2023 | Tropical Storm Ophelia | 1,512 | 2% | 14 h | – | 15k |
| Aug 10, 2024 | No storm report | 11,492 | 14% | 1.8 h | 1.8 h | 13k |
| Jan 9, 2024 | No storm report | 5,641 | 7% | 2.8 h | 1.5 h | 13k |
| Jun 21, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 1,485 | 2% | 11 h | – | 13k |
| May 31, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 3,273 | 4% | 7.2 h | – | 13k |
| Sep 24, 2022 | No storm report | 1,946 | 2% | 7.8 h | – | 12k |
| Jan 15, 2018 | No storm report | 2,333 | 3% | 7.8 h | – | 12k |
| Jul 29, 2022 | No storm report | 2,782 | 3% | 9.5 h | – | 12k |
| Dec 9, 2018 | Winter storm | 6,471 | 8% | 4.8 h | 4.0 h | 12k |
| Feb 22, 2019 | No storm report | 3,643 | 4% | 3.5 h | – | 12k |
| Mar 22, 2019 | No storm report | 6,857 | 8% | 3.0 h | 2.2 h | 12k |
| Oct 13, 2017 | No storm report | 5,440 | 6% | 3.2 h | 3.2 h | 11k |
| Jul 27, 2025 | Heat | 3,845 | 5% | 4.2 h | – | 11k |
| Aug 10, 2022 | Flooding | 2,344 | 3% | 6.0 h | – | 9.3k |
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 Newport News from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Tropical storm 68%
- No storm on record 23%
- Thunderstorms 4.9%
- Flooding 1.4%
- Tornadoes 1.0%
- Winter storm 0.7%
- Heat 0.6%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Newport News
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
- James City 7.2 h
- York 6.9 h
- Hampton 5.2 h
- Newport News (this county) 5.0 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 84,935 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 →