Power outage history
Cabell County West Virginia
18hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
28th most of 55 in West Virginia 2.8× 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 Cabell's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2021 was the worst well-recorded year, at 3.0 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Cabell, 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, 2021 | Ice storm | 35,274 | 53% | 15.8 d | 7.3 d | 4.4M |
| Apr 2, 2024 | Tornadoes | 16,416 | 25% | 3.1 d | 2.1 d | 365k |
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 8,987 | 14% | 2.9 d | 2.3 d | 225k |
| Jun 13, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 9,144 | 14% | 2.8 d | 39 h | 199k |
| Aug 25, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 9,156 | 14% | 2.1 d | 47 h | 181k |
| Mar 3, 2023 | No storm report | 6,319 | 10% | 46 h | 31 h | 131k |
| Jul 13, 2015 | Flooding | 6,813 | 10% | 48 h | 44 h | 122k |
| Jun 17, 2022 | No storm report | 8,790 | 13% | 34 h | 28 h | 114k |
| Jul 31, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 5,421 | 8% | 2.0 d | 2.0 d | 110k |
| Mar 25, 2023 | Windstorm | 6,694 | 10% | 48 h | 43 h | 108k |
| Jul 22, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 9,311 | 14% | 19 h | 13 h | 93k |
| Mar 30, 2019 | No storm report | 11,067 | 17% | 8.2 h | 7.2 h | 73k |
| Apr 13, 2020 | Windstorm | 6,680 | 10% | 19 h | 14 h | 65k |
| May 9, 2021 | No storm report | 5,197 | 8% | 26 h | 24 h | 63k |
| Feb 24, 2019 | Windstorm | 4,667 | 7% | 29 h | 25 h | 61k |
| Mar 1, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 2,298 | 3% | 34 h | – | 40k |
| Feb 17, 2022 | No storm report | 3,693 | 6% | 20 h | 18 h | 38k |
| Dec 29, 2024 | Windstorm | 3,570 | 5% | 27 h | 24 h | 37k |
| May 22, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 3,946 | 6% | 25 h | 25 h | 35k |
| Dec 14, 2015 | No storm report | 2,491 | 4% | 27 h | – | 35k |
| Jan 11, 2020 | Windstorm | 4,509 | 7% | 23 h | 23 h | 35k |
| Jun 23, 2017 | Tropical Storm Cindy | 3,054 | 5% | 16 h | – | 33k |
| Oct 26, 2018 | No storm report | 18,220 | 28% | 3.0 h | 1.2 h | 32k |
| Jun 26, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 4,740 | 7% | 12 h | 10 h | 32k |
| Oct 25, 2015 | No storm report | 920 | 1% | 33 h | – | 31k |
| Jul 14, 2016 | Flooding | 2,880 | 4% | 24 h | – | 31k |
| Apr 26, 2019 | No storm report | 5,060 | 8% | 12 h | 9.2 h | 31k |
| Jul 20, 2018 | No storm report | 2,763 | 4% | 20 h | – | 30k |
| Aug 15, 2016 | No storm report | 2,532 | 4% | 12 h | – | 29k |
| Jun 10, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 1,421 | 2% | 23 h | – | 27k |
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 Cabell from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Ice storm 57%
- No storm on record 20%
- Thunderstorms 8.7%
- Windstorm 5.1%
- Tornadoes 4.7%
- Tropical storm 3.2%
- Flooding 1.1%
- Winter storm 0.6%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Cabell
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole West 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 | 1,035 | 546 | 2.98 | 17.0 | 348k |
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
- Lincoln 54 h
- Wayne 50 h
- Mason 21 h
- Cabell (this county) 18 h
- Putnam 16 h
- Lawrence, OH 15 h
- Gallia, OH 8.0 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 66,139 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 →