Tallahassee, Florida Power Outage Today

How reliable is City of Tallahassee Utilities service in Tallahassee?

City of Tallahassee Utilities is a city-owned utility with 127,141 customers. In 2024 its customers averaged 2.14 interruptions and 149 minutes (about 2.5 hours) without power, so the average outage lasted 70 minutes.

Outages here come often but are repaired quickly: more than one interruption per customer a year, each lasting about 70 minutes. Clocks that blink and surge protectors matter more than a generator.

For comparison, Florida as a whole averaged 1,322 minutes and the United States 614 minutes. That puts City of Tallahassee Utilities below the state average, which is better.

Among the 34 utilities in Florida with at least 5,000 customers that report to the federal government, City of Tallahassee Utilities ranks 12th for the fewest outage minutes (1 is best). Nationally, 58% of the 926 utilities of that size reported more outage minutes in 2024.

This utility reports with its own method rather than the IEEE standard, so compare its numbers with other utilities loosely.

These are the figures the utility itself reported to the US Energy Information Administration (Form EIA-861, 2024) and describe the whole service territory, not one street. Your own address can be better or worse.

Storm season and outages in Tallahassee

NOAA’s Storm Events Database lists 637 storm reports for Leon County from 2015 through 2026, most often thunderstorm wind (516), flash flood (60), hail (22), and tornado (16). The busiest full year was 2015 with 107 reports and the quietest was 2021 with 16, so the risk changes a lot from one year to the next.

Reports peak in April (159 since 2015), followed by June and July. October is outside those three months, so an outage now is less likely to be weather-related.

NOAA’s own narratives name power outages in 19 storm episodes in Leon County since 2015, most often in July. That count is a floor, since the database records outages only when a spotter or agency mentions them.

What the most common storm types in Tallahassee do to the grid:

• Thunderstorm wind. Straight-line wind pushes trees and limbs into distribution lines. These outages are usually local, a street or a neighborhood at a time, and crews clear them circuit by circuit.
• Flash flood. Floodwater reaches ground-level transformers, meters and low-lying substations. Utilities may shut power off ahead of the water on purpose, and wading near flooded equipment can electrocute.
• Tornado. A tornado destroys poles and lines along its path. Repairs there mean rebuilding rather than reconnecting, so restoration takes days instead of hours.

Storm reports that name Tallahassee

Within Leon County, 121 NOAA storm reports since 2015 name Tallahassee as their location or in their description: thunderstorm wind (78), flash flood (23), tornado (5), and lightning (5). That is about 19% of the county’s reports. Reports naming Tallahassee are most common in April. The busiest full year was 2024 with 36. These reports record 3 deaths in total.

In NOAA’s own words, storms that left Tallahassee without power:

• July 21, 2018 (thunderstorm wind): “Trees and power lines were blown down across Leon county, mainly from near Tallahassee eastward.” Source: NOAA Storm Events Database
• February 7, 2017 (thunderstorm wind): “Scattered trees and power lines were blown down in Tallahassee.” Source: NOAA Storm Events Database
• July 5, 2015 (thunderstorm wind): “Power lines were blown down on 6th Street via a twitter post from the City of Tallahassee twitter page.” Source: NOAA Storm Events Database

Who a power outage hits hardest in Tallahassee

85% of occupied homes in Tallahassee are heated with electricity (US 41.3%). In a winter outage those homes lose heat the moment the power fails, and electric furnaces and heat pumps are too large to run from a portable generator. Warm layers, blankets and a plan for where to stay matter more here than in a gas-heated city.

Residents aged 65 or older are 11.7% of the population in Tallahassee, below the US share of 17.2% and 12.9% report a disability (US 13.3%). These are the households most likely to depend on powered medical equipment such as oxygen concentrators, CPAP machines and refrigerated medicine. If someone in your home does, ask City of Tallahassee Utilities whether it keeps a priority or medical-needs list, and register before the next storm rather than during it.

About the housing: 20% of the housing in Tallahassee was built before 1970 (US 35.5%); 21.4% of homes are in buildings with 20 or more units (US 10.3%), where an outage also stops elevators and water pumps, which matters for upper floors and anyone who cannot use stairs; 59.4% of households rent (US 34.8%), so many residents depend on a landlord to restore building systems and cannot add a generator or battery themselves.

Median household income in Tallahassee is $57,409, below the Florida figure of $74,568. For many households, replacing a freezer of spoiled food or paying for a hotel during a long outage is a real hardship; dialing 211 connects to local shelters, warming or cooling centers and utility assistance programs.

Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 (housing, heating fuel, age and disability tables).

Backup power and electricity use in Tallahassee

The average City of Tallahassee Utilities home used about 927 kWh a month in 2024 (US average 892 kWh), an average draw of 1.3 kW around the clock, and paid about 13.6 cents per kWh (14.1 in the state, 15.8 nationally), roughly $126 a month.

Keeping only the essentials on (a refrigerator, router, a few lights and phone chargers, about 400 watts) through an outage that lasts the average 70 minutes takes less than 1 kWh. A portable power station or a power bank covers that; a generator is more than most households here need for a typical outage.

A generator must never run indoors, in a garage or near a window; generator and food-safety rules are in the power outage guide linked below.

If the power is out in Tallahassee

About 196,169 people live in Tallahassee, the 8th largest of the 20 Florida cities on this site. Report the outage to the utility so a ticket exists for your address, then check City of Tallahassee Utilities’s outage map for an estimate. If neighbors have power and you do not, report it again: the fault may be on the line to your house alone, which is a separate repair.

Tallahassee power outage map

City of Tallahassee Utilities’s outage map has the official restoration estimate for your address; the count above comes from residents. Food and generator safety: power outage guide.

Tallahassee power outage questions