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

Power outage history

Suffolk City Virginia

8.0hours

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

79th most of 123 in Virginia 1.2× the national median

Worst outage on record Hurricane Isaias · Aug 4, 2020 94% of customers out · 90% back in 33 hours
Hours without power, average customer per year 8.0h / yr State average 8.7 h · national median 6.6 h
Major outages a year 4.6 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 3.3days Hurricane Isaias, over 1% of customers out
Outage hours on storm days 72% Share falling on days with a NOAA storm report here
Worst year 2020 25 hours without power, average customer
Electricity customers 26,940 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 Suffolk'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

2020 was the worst well-recorded year, at 25 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.

Suffolk, hours without power per customer

SuffolkUS median countyVirginia average
0 10 20 30 1.3 ’15 12 ’16 3.0 ’17 8.9 ’18 6.4 ’19 25 ’20 3.1 ’21 4.7 ’22 3.8 ’23 5.1 ’24 6.2 ’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
Aug 4, 2020 Hurricane Isaias 25,212 94% 3.3 d 33 h 492k
Oct 8, 2016 Hurricane Matthew 10,844 40% 3.0 d 35 h 260k
Oct 12, 2018 Hurricane Michael 6,312 23% 37 h 11 h 97k
May 16, 2025 Thunderstorms 7,260 27% 25 h 19 h 71k
Jun 20, 2019 Thunderstorms 6,823 25% 11 h 8.5 h 54k
Apr 13, 2020 Windstorm 5,594 21% 34 h 15 h 54k
Jun 22, 2018 Thunderstorms 7,051 26% 15 h 7.5 h 44k
Jan 9, 2024 No storm report 3,107 12% 20 h 14 h 39k
Mar 2, 2018 Windstorm 3,222 12% 29 h 22 h 24k
Dec 24, 2020 Tornadoes 4,801 18% 9.8 h 8.5 h 23k
May 9, 2020 No storm report 3,084 11% 12 h 11 h 18k
Apr 26, 2022 Thunderstorms 4,493 17% 7.0 h 3.0 h 18k

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 +6h 90% by +14h

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

  • Tropical storm 44%
  • No storm on record 28%
  • Thunderstorms 18%
  • Windstorm 5.5%
  • Tornadoes 1.6%
  • Winter storm 1.6%
  • Heat 0.8%
  • Flooding 0.8%

Who keeps the lights on

Utilities serving Suffolk

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
Community Electric Coop VA 240 219 1.93 11.3 165k
City of Franklin VA – – – 12.5 67k

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 26,940 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 →