Power outage history
Putnam County West Virginia
16hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
34th most of 55 in West Virginia 2.5× 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 Putnam'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 2.2 days for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Putnam, 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 | 17,405 | 50% | 15.6 d | 6.2 d | 1.6M |
| Apr 2, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 8,480 | 24% | 3.2 d | 2.7 d | 266k |
| Jun 13, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 10,210 | 29% | 2.7 d | 30 h | 145k |
| Jul 31, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 5,193 | 15% | 48 h | 39 h | 111k |
| Mar 3, 2023 | Windstorm | 3,120 | 9% | 40 h | 29 h | 75k |
| Mar 1, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 6,992 | 20% | 34 h | 26 h | 68k |
| Mar 25, 2023 | Windstorm | 5,598 | 16% | 28 h | 21 h | 65k |
| Jan 11, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 4,600 | 13% | 32 h | 16 h | 47k |
| Oct 20, 2018 | Windstorm | 2,335 | 7% | 26 h | 21 h | 46k |
| Apr 1, 2023 | Windstorm | 2,535 | 7% | 24 h | 21 h | 43k |
| Feb 24, 2019 | Windstorm | 2,304 | 7% | 31 h | 25 h | 42k |
| Jul 13, 2015 | Thunderstorms | 2,616 | 7% | 42 h | 42 h | 40k |
| Apr 9, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 5,414 | 15% | 19 h | 16 h | 39k |
| Jan 6, 2025 | Winter storm | 2,025 | 6% | 40 h | 32 h | 33k |
| Jul 28, 2023 | Thunderstorms | 2,398 | 7% | 26 h | 33 h | 31k |
| May 9, 2021 | No storm report | 1,808 | 5% | 27 h | 27 h | 30k |
| Feb 14, 2025 | No storm report | 3,824 | 11% | 20 h | 14 h | 28k |
| Nov 27, 2019 | Windstorm | 1,432 | 4% | 35 h | – | 27k |
| May 16, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 1,614 | 5% | 23 h | – | 25k |
| Sep 27, 2024 | Hurricane Helene | 1,159 | 3% | 29 h | – | 25k |
| Mar 1, 2018 | No storm report | 2,894 | 8% | 18 h | 18 h | 23k |
| Aug 25, 2020 | Thunderstorms | 1,519 | 4% | 22 h | – | 23k |
| Dec 19, 2025 | Windstorm | 2,479 | 7% | 19 h | 15 h | 20k |
| Jul 1, 2018 | No storm report | 3,096 | 9% | 21 h | 20 h | 20k |
| Jun 23, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 6,174 | 18% | 13 h | 7.8 h | 19k |
| Jun 22, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 2,071 | 6% | 21 h | 5.2 h | 19k |
| Apr 14, 2025 | Thunderstorms | 1,495 | 4% | 21 h | – | 18k |
| Feb 3, 2022 | Winter storm | 982 | 3% | 18 h | – | 17k |
| Feb 17, 2022 | Flooding | 1,881 | 5% | 19 h | 14 h | 16k |
| Jun 17, 2022 | Thunderstorms | 1,478 | 4% | 23 h | – | 14k |
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 Putnam from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Ice storm 44%
- Thunderstorms 24%
- No storm on record 18%
- Windstorm 9.3%
- Winter storm 2.2%
- Tropical storm 1.2%
- Flooding 1.1%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Putnam
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.
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 35,147 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 →