Power Outage in Manhattan, KS

Report from mping of 3 inch diameter tree limbs down and power poles broken.

Several wood power poles snapped and laying on highway 24, per NWS storm survey on June 12. Winds estimated at 80 mph.

Tree limbs 3 inches in diameter broken, power poles broken.

Delayed report of a snapped power line. Report was received via a twitter post from Westar Energy.

Westar Energy reported numerous power outages across the county affecting over one thousand people. Outages were due to downed tree limbs on power lines and power lines failing due to around one half to three quarters of an inch of ice Sunday morning.

Tree limbs and power lines down in the city.

Wind gusts around 70 to 80 mph caused a tree to fall down on a house. Large limbs up to 10 inches in diameter were down as well as power lines.

As a result of weakly convecting stratiform rain showers 3 power poles were reported down at Fort Riley near the PX. Other tree branches of unknown diameters were broken as a result of the strong winds associated with the weak showers.

A wind measuring instrument mounted to the roof of the Air Traffic Control tower at Manhattan Regional Airport measured a 93 mph wind gust. The ASOS station at Manhattan Regional Airport also reported a strong wind gust of 68 mph. In the town of Ogden the windows of a residence were cracked by the force of the wind. No estimation of the wind speed was given by this resident. Kansas State University also sustained some significant damage, as wind damage to Anderson Hall's roof resulted in over a quarter million dollars in repairs. In and around Manhattan, numerous outbuildings were damaged and destroyed. Widespread power line and tree damage was also noted across the city, resulting in many damaged roofs and widespread power outages.

Trained spotters throughout Riley County reported 60 to 65 mph wind gusts. In Randolph trees snapped blocking the Green-Randolph Road. In Manhattan some shingles blew off of roofs and power outages were reported.

Trained spotters throughout Riley County reported 60 to 65 mph wind gusts. In Randolph trees snapped blocking the Green-Randolph Road. In Manhattan some shingles blew off of roofs and power outages were reported.

An NWS employee reported a 60 mph wind gust along Highway 24 near Manhattan. A 70 mph wind gust was reported near Riley, where power was lost.

An NWS employee reported a 60 mph wind gust along Highway 24 near Manhattan. A 70 mph wind gust was reported near Riley, where power was lost.

Winds were estimated at 50 mph. The power was out at home.

Several power poles were snapped, some at ground level and others half way up the pole.

There are reports of downed trees and power lines. Roof of apartment building on west side of town is partially removed.

Non-thunderstorm 59 mph wind gust measured by the Fort Riley ASOS. A radio antenna was blown down as a result of strong non-thunderstorm winds. This also resulted in power disruptions, most notably to the traffic lights on Poyntz Avenue. The Manhattan area's only fire escape training trailer was also knocked over by the strong winds.

Riley County: One of the hardest hit areas, Riley County reported some of the most widespread power outages for counties in northeast Kansas. 16,000 customers in Manhattan and surrounding areas alone were without power. For many, power periodically went up and down the 10th through 13th. Downed trees and power lines were the greatest concerns, and roads for the most part were in good condition due to the hard work of local road crews. Bluemont Rd was blocked from 3rd St. to Juliette Ave. due to a downed power pole. Several streets in Manhattan were impassible because of downed limbs, including Claflin near College Ave, other portions of Claflin, as well as Yuma Ave. Businesses, including local newspaper offices, across the county were left without power, and were unable to serve customers. Shelters were setup in Fort Riley and Manhattan to accommodate those left without power. Thirteen thousand Manhattan residents were still without power the morning of the 13th. Power was returned to Ft. Riley the morning of the 17th. Two people were injured when they came in contact with downed power lines (a 38-year-old man and his 15-year-old son). At least 1,000 power poles were broken in the city and surrounding area alone. The evening of the 18th, 200 people still did not have power in Riley County. At least one house fire was blamed on the weather, a $210,000 loss.

Tree down on mobile home near the intersection of Allen Road and TUttle Creek Blvd in eastern Manhattan. Several power outages reported.

A lightning strike caused a power outage for 1,100 customers for nearly 2 hours. A second lightning strike knocked a tree onto powerlines, which knocked out power to 1,375 customers for more than an hour.

Snow up to two inches and gusty winds caused hazardous driving conditions. Power was out in parts of Manhattan due to the gusty winds and wet snow. Several schools were also closed due to the inclement conditions.

A 12 inch diameter tree and power lines were blown down on the south side of Manhattan. Report relayed from county dispatcher.

Lightning struck and fell some power lines in the city of Manhattan causing a loss of power to around 2100 customers.

Strong winds blew down trees and power lines in Manhattan.

Strong winds knocked down power poles near Keats and caused a number of residents and businesses to be without power for a time.

A bow echo moved east across Riley county producing strong winds and large hail. Winds reached a speed of 82 mph at the Manhattan airport. The strong winds knocked out power and did widespread damage in Manhattan to many homes and businesses. The Walmart store had severe roof damage that resulted in store closure for several days until repairs could be made. Total damage estimates from Riley county officials were 5 million dollars.

Strong winds blew down power lines at the Manhattan airport.

A storm system brought t-storms to the area on the morning of Friday January 10th. Rain and T-storms turned to freezing rain as much colder air surged southward by late morning. Ice accumulation of one tenth and up to around one quarter of an inch occurred mainly from mid morning to late afternoon on Jan 10th. In addition northeast winds of 20 to 30 mph caused some tree limbs to fall and sporadic power outages did occur due to the ice and wind combination.

A long duration winter storm (primarily freezing rain) event began during the evening of Nov 26th and continued into Friday Nov 27th. There was a brief 6-8 hour break in the freezing rain on Friday afternoon into Friday evening. However another round of freezing rain developed and impacted much of the area on Saturday November 28th and continued through Saturday night into early Sunday morning November 29th. Light rain and freezing rain was reported on Sunday with more widespread rain, freezing rain and snow reported across north central Kansas Sunday night into early Monday morning on the 30th. For the sake of clarity this event will be split into 3 episodes, the initial freezing rain and sleet episode that occurred Thursday night through Friday and the longer, larger ice storm episode that occurred late Friday night into early Sunday morning and the final bout of freezing rain that occurred Sunday night into early Monday. ||This episode deals with the second larger ice storm event. ||All told, many areas of northeast Kansas received anywhere from one quarter to three quarters of an inch of ice on flat surfaces and on trees and power lines. The cumulative impacts of repeated bouts of freezing precipitation began to cause tree limbs to break, power lines to fall and associated power outages Saturday through Sunday mainly across Morris, Wabaunsee, Pottawatomie, Riley, Dickinson, Clay, Geary and Lyon counties where the greatest impacts were reported by Sunday into Monday. Thousands of residents of those counties were without power by Sunday morning. Total measured ice accumulations from official ASOS sensors for the storm period defined as 6pm Thursday through 6am Monday included: Salina (proxy for Dickinson CO) 0.59, Manhattan 0.49, Topeka Forbes Field 0.47, Emporia 0.77, Lawrence 0.22, Falls City, NE 0.32 Concordia 0.38. Those totals reflect a 4 day ice accumulation amount as reported by the ice sensors on ASOS sites. NWS Topeka issued 3 separate Warnings for this event including one ice storm warning on Sunday morning.

A long duration winter storm (primarily freezing rain) event began during the evening of Nov 26th and continued into Friday Nov 27th. There was a brief 6-8 hour break in the freezing rain on Friday afternoon into Friday evening. However another round of freezing rain developed and impacted much of the area on Saturday November 28th and continued through Saturday night into early Sunday morning November 29th. Light rain and freezing rain was reported on Sunday with more widespread rain, freezing rain and snow reported across north central Kansas Sunday night into early Monday morning on the 30th. For the sake of clarity this event will be split into 3 episodes, the initial freezing rain and sleet episode that occurred Thursday night through Friday and the longer, larger ice storm episode that occurred late Friday night into early Sunday morning and the final bout of freezing rain that occurred late Sunday night into early Monday. ||This episode deals with the first bout of freezing rain and sleet that occurred Thursday night into Friday. ||All told, many areas of northeast Kansas received anywhere from one quarter to three quarters of an inch of ice on flat surfaces and on trees and power lines. The cumulative impacts of repeated bouts of freezing precipitation began to cause tree limbs to break, power lines to fall and associated power outages Saturday through Sunday mainly across Morris, Wabaunsee, Pottawatomie, Riley, Dickinson, Clay, Geary and Lyon counties where the greatest impacts were reported by Sunday into Monday. Thousands of residents of those counties were without power by Sunday morning. Total measured ice accumulations from official ASOS sensors for the storm period defined as 6pm Thursday through 6am Monday included: Salina (proxy for Dickinson CO) 0.59, Manhattan 0.49, Topeka Forbes Field 0.47, Emporia 0.77, Lawrence 0.22, Falls City, NE 0.32 Concordia 0.38. Those totals reflect a 4 day ice accumulation amount as reported by the ice sensors on ASOS sites. NWS Topeka issued 3 separate Warnings for this event including one ice storm warning on Sunday morning.

Stratiform rain caused strong winds to reach the surface in two known locations, one being near Junction City, Kansas, and the other being near Rantoul, Kansas. These weakly convecting showers caused strong winds which caused damage in these two locations, highlighted by power poles and lines down near Junction City and a barn being blown down near Rantoul.

On August 5, scattered thunderstorms formed in the early morning hours. Damaging winds up to 60 mph were reported across portions of north central Kansas. Minor damage, consisting of broken tree limbs and downed power lines, was reported across the areas with the strongest winds.

A powerful storm system moved across northern Kansas on Saturday morning, producing winds of 60 to 80 mph or greater from north central Kansas well into Missouri. Some of the strongest winds were experienced along a swath extending from Concordia through Barnes, Blue Rapids and Vermillion along Highway 9, and between highway 16 and 36 over extreme northeast Kansas. Later that evening another round of severe weather brought damaging winds, large hail, and flash flooding.

A powerful winter storm battered much of Northeast Kansas dumping up to 15 inches of snow across parts of the area. Many areas received over 6 inches of snow during the storm which began on Monday night and persisted into the early morning hours of Wednesday. Areas along and southeast of an Abilene to Manhattan to Hiawatha line experienced periods of freezing rain and sleet during the day Tuesday, December 8th, which limited the snowfall accumulations however northwest of this line the precipitation primarily fell as snow and it was heavy during the day Tuesday. Although the heavy snows ended by Tuesday night, extremely strong northwest winds gusting from 40 to 50 mph developed and produced near blizzard conditions across parts of the area during the early morning hours on Wednesday. Wind chill values dropped into the -10 to -20 degree range early on Wednesday December 9th.

Late night thunderstorms developed across portions of north central and northeast Kansas on July 14th. One storm became severe across central portions of Riley County just before midnight. A spotter reported quarter-sized hail and 50 mph wind gusts near Tuttle Creek Lake. Just to the south, Riley County Emergency Management reported several power poles down from damaging straight-line winds five miles north-northwest of Manhattan, KS.

Gradient winds sustained at 25 mph with gusts to 40 mph caused damage to four inflatable carnival rides in Randolph, KS. Three children in one of the larger inflatable rides were blown around inside the ride as a strong wind gust flipped the inflatable ride over. One of the children reported some minor injuries and was taken to a hospital. The ride with the children inside flipped up against a fence and hit a power line near the fence. The power line did not injure any children, but was snapped by the impact of the ride.

An upper level trough slid across the central plains during the late afternoon and early evening hours of August 20th and 21st. Several discrete thunderstorms developed ahead of the trough in the extremely moist and unstable environment present over northwest and north central Kansas. Storms tracked eastward, and dropped hail up to an inch in diameter in Cloud County. The main hazard with the storms that developed though were the damaging straight line winds. Gusts up to 75 mph tore across counties in the north central part of the state, which toppled and trees and powerlines, and damaged a few farmsteads.

Thunderstorms developed over the area late in the afternoon of the 12th and continued well into the evening hours. Many of the storms became severe and produced numerous reports of large hail and damaging winds. Many power lines were downed leaving many residents without power for a time. A number of farm buildings were destroyed or damaged. Flash flooding was also reported for a time in Dickinson and Republic counties.

Strong non thunderstorm winds spread over the mentioned counties and did considerable damage to trees, power lines, and buildings in the area. A metal building was destroyed in Ada and the roof blown off a house. A metal roof and siding was blown off a building in Minneapolis, and a shed roof was blown away in Tescott. A building under construction in Manhattan was destroyed and a power pole was blown down. A tree limb was blown down smashing a car in Solomon, and the roof and poles of a barn were damaged near Delphos.

A wake low developed just before midnight near Manhattan and moved south spreading high winds over much of the Flint Hills region for several hours. Tree limbs and a sign were downed in Wabaunsee county where arcing power lines apparantly caused a transformer fire. one power pole and several trees were downed in Emporia. Maximum wind gusts associated with the wake low reached near 65 mph in some areas for a time.