Power outage history
Roanoke City Virginia
7.7hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
83rd most of 123 in Virginia 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 Roanoke's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2019 was the worst well-recorded year, at 13 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Roanoke, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 27, 2024 | Windstorm | 7,497 | 11% | 3.2 d | 3.0 d | 285k |
| Feb 16, 2016 | Winter storm | 12,933 | 18% | 2.5 d | 36 h | 260k |
| Mar 1, 2018 | Windstorm | 7,811 | 11% | 2.9 d | 2.3 d | 227k |
| Feb 20, 2019 | Winter storm | 9,253 | 13% | 2.5 d | 44 h | 195k |
| Feb 24, 2019 | Windstorm | 9,051 | 13% | 2.2 d | 40 h | 186k |
| Feb 12, 2025 | Winter storm | 3,662 | 5% | 2.6 d | 2.0 d | 110k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Winter storm | 2,536 | 4% | 2.6 d | – | 85k |
| Nov 1, 2020 | No storm report | 4,119 | 6% | 36 h | 21 h | 72k |
| Feb 16, 2025 | Windstorm | 3,551 | 5% | 28 h | – | 60k |
| May 26, 2024 | No storm report | 2,988 | 4% | 18 h | – | 44k |
| May 27, 2018 | Flooding | 6,721 | 9% | 20 h | 15 h | 44k |
| Sep 4, 2015 | No storm report | 5,327 | 7% | 18 h | 18 h | 41k |
| Jun 2, 2019 | No storm report | 2,355 | 3% | 23 h | – | 38k |
| May 29, 2019 | No storm report | 3,620 | 5% | 20 h | 17 h | 37k |
| Oct 31, 2019 | Windstorm | 3,750 | 5% | 16 h | 16 h | 36k |
| Oct 11, 2018 | Hurricane Michael | 1,769 | 2% | 25 h | – | 35k |
| Aug 15, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 8,340 | 12% | 9.0 h | 3.8 h | 33k |
| Jul 2, 2022 | No storm report | 2,785 | 4% | 18 h | – | 28k |
| Jun 2, 2018 | No storm report | 4,886 | 7% | 10 h | 4.8 h | 25k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | Winter storm | 4,192 | 6% | 11 h | 19 h | 25k |
| Oct 13, 2017 | No storm report | 3,122 | 4% | 9.0 h | – | 23k |
| Oct 21, 2018 | Windstorm | 2,322 | 3% | 11 h | – | 21k |
| Nov 15, 2018 | No storm report | 7,275 | 10% | 17 h | 48 min | 19k |
| Oct 16, 2019 | No storm report | 3,600 | 5% | 12 h | 15 h | 18k |
| Aug 4, 2018 | No storm report | 4,640 | 7% | 4.2 h | 1.5 h | 18k |
| Jul 8, 2016 | No storm report | 1,174 | 2% | 18 h | – | 18k |
| Jul 21, 2019 | No storm report | 5,389 | 8% | 5.8 h | 6.8 h | 18k |
| Jan 11, 2020 | Windstorm | 1,528 | 2% | 14 h | – | 18k |
| Jan 6, 2025 | Winter storm | 2,671 | 4% | 9.0 h | – | 17k |
| May 15, 2018 | No storm report | 4,375 | 6% | 8.0 h | 6.5 h | 17k |
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 Roanoke from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- No storm on record 37%
- Windstorm 36%
- Winter storm 19%
- Flooding 3.7%
- Tropical storm 3.0%
- Thunderstorms 1.4%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Roanoke
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Appalachian Power Co | Investor Owned | 1,116 | 328 | 2.36 | 17.2 | 468k |
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
- Roanoke 20 h
- Roanoke (this county) 7.7 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 71,375 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 →