Power outage history
Roanoke County Virginia
20hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
39th most of 123 in Virginia 3.0× 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
2025 was the worst well-recorded year, at 29 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 11, 2025 | Winter storm | 12,657 | 40% | 5.9 d | 2.4 d | 528k |
| Sep 27, 2024 | Windstorm | 12,428 | 40% | 4.6 d | 2.9 d | 516k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Winter storm | 8,376 | 27% | 3.5 d | 3.1 d | 278k |
| Feb 16, 2016 | Winter storm | 12,287 | 39% | 2.4 d | 34 h | 221k |
| Jan 6, 2025 | Winter storm | 4,491 | 14% | 2.3 d | 46 h | 99k |
| May 26, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 3,857 | 12% | 26 h | 14 h | 70k |
| Jul 8, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 4,136 | 13% | 28 h | 23 h | 61k |
| Jun 17, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 4,364 | 14% | 37 h | 19 h | 54k |
| May 4, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 2,857 | 9% | 28 h | 27 h | 35k |
| Sep 4, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 4,182 | 13% | 19 h | 18 h | 33k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | Windstorm | 2,259 | 7% | 24 h | 24 h | 27k |
| Sep 30, 2022 | Hurricane Ian | 1,752 | 6% | 22 h | 9.2 h | 27k |
| Mar 10, 2024 | Windstorm | 2,060 | 7% | 20 h | 10 h | 23k |
| Jul 29, 2025 | No storm report | 949 | 3% | 22 h | – | 19k |
| Jul 6, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,538 | 5% | 13 h | – | 19k |
| Mar 25, 2023 | No storm report | 2,127 | 7% | 18 h | 15 h | 18k |
| Jan 3, 2022 | Winter storm | 1,104 | 4% | 26 h | – | 15k |
| May 27, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,585 | 5% | 19 h | 19 h | 15k |
| Aug 8, 2024 | Hurricane Debby | 1,333 | 4% | 23 h | – | 15k |
| May 29, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 2,100 | 7% | 10 h | 6.8 h | 15k |
| Jul 12, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,821 | 6% | 14 h | 20 h | 15k |
| Jun 11, 2016 | No storm report | 2,973 | 9% | 4.5 h | 1.2 h | 13k |
| Apr 2, 2016 | Windstorm | 799 | 3% | 18 h | – | 13k |
| Jul 28, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 1,937 | 6% | 16 h | 20 h | 13k |
| Sep 28, 2015 | No storm report | 2,871 | 9% | 4.8 h | 2.2 h | 12k |
| Mar 4, 2023 | No storm report | 1,750 | 6% | 13 h | 12 h | 12k |
| Dec 6, 2021 | No storm report | 612 | 2% | 20 h | – | 12k |
| Sep 8, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 2,513 | 8% | 12 h | 7.0 h | 11k |
| Sep 19, 2016 | No storm report | 2,544 | 8% | 5.2 h | 2.2 h | 11k |
| Nov 20, 2024 | Windstorm | 853 | 3% | 19 h | – | 11k |
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.
- Winter storm 40%
- Windstorm 26%
- No storm on record 20%
- Thunderstorms 12%
- Tropical storm 2.1%
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 |
| Craig-Botetourt Electric Coop | VA | 1,599 | 610 | 4.82 | 14.4 | 70k |
| City of Salem | Municipal | 28 | 28 | 0.29 | 15.5 | 11k |
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
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 31,398 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 →