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Phillipsburg Power Outages Caused by Weather
Events
Severe criteria wind gusts, peaking at 71 MPH, were measured just south of Phillipsburg. In town, a restaurant lost its roof. Power lines and large tree limbs, some 6-12 inches in diameter, were downed.
Wind gusts were estimated to be near 70 MPH. Near Prairie View, an under-construction grain bin was blown over. In Phillipsburg, several trees up to 12 inches in diameter were downed, causing power outages. A local business lost a portion of its roof.
Multiple power poles were snapped on 500 Road approximately 2 miles north of Highway 36 by wind gusts estimated near 70 MPH.
Wind gusts estimated at 70 mph, accompanied by quarter size hail. Tree limbs and power lines were blown down.
Episodes
This Wednesday was only an opening act to many markedly windy days within North Central Kansas during April 2022 (per analysis of data from nearby Concordia/Hill City airports this was likely the overall-windiest April since at least 1996). Primarily between the mid-morning and late afternoon hours, sustained northwesterly winds were commonly at least 25-35 MPH with frequent gusts 45-55 MPH...and there were a few measured marginally-severe criteria gusts up to 58 MPH. The overall-strongest winds targeted Phillips, Rooks, Smith and Osborne counties, including unofficial peak gusts of 58 MPH at Phillipsburg airport (AWOS) and Logan (mesonet). Although there were no known reports of notable wind damage, the combination of strong winds and ongoing drought conditions promoted fairly widespread areas of blowing dust, reducing visibility to one mile or less in various locations. ||In the mid-upper levels, the main player in what would end up being a two-day high wind event for the local area (along with the 7th) was a powerful/deep closed low churning over the northern Minnesota/Wisconsin region. At the surface, a nearly co-located intense low pressure center bottomed out around 988 millibars across MN/WI during the day. This placed the state of Kansas in a favorable environment for high winds within the southwest quadrant of the large-scale low. At mid-day (18Z), a respectable northeast-to-southwest pressure gradient of 12 millibars was noted across the state (ranging from 1006 millibars in far northeast KS to 1018 millibars far southwest). Furthermore, steep low-level lapse rates allowed efficient downward momentum transfer from aloft during the daylight hours, with wind speeds in the 850-700 millibar layer averaging 40-50 knots.
A strong cold front brought intense non-thunderstorm and thunderstorm related wind gusts to north central Kansas on the evening of October 11th. This front entered western portions of north central Kansas between 7pm and 8pm CDT. The cold front already had a history of producing severe caliber, non-thunderstorm, straight line winds over western Nebraska and Kansas, and this trend continued along and just behind the cold front as it marched through north central Kansas. There were several reports of wind gusts of 60 to 65 mph across Phillips, Smith, and Osborne Counties. Damage reports from these areas were fairly typical for winds of this magnitude and mainly limited to tree and power line damage. Thunderstorms began to develop along the cold front as it moved farther east into Jewell County between 8:30pm and 9pm CDT. Thunderstorm intensity increased between 9pm CDT and 9:30pm CDT, such that the wind gusts produced by the thunderstorms enhanced the already-high ambient synoptically driven non-thunderstorm wind gusts associated with the cold front. This resulted in additional 60 to 65 mph wind gusts across portions of Jewell County. No specific damage reports were received from this area. Wind gusts decreased as thunderstorms exited Jewell County by 10pm CDT.||As mentioned above, the damaging wind events in the eastern half of north central Kansas were largely driven by convective winds that enhanced already-high ambient winds. Farther west, the severe wind was non-convective and driven by intense pressure rises behind the cold front on the order of 3-5 mb per 2 hrs. This event was somewhat unique due to the narrow overlap, spatially and temporally, of both convective and non-convective damaging winds.
Severe wind gusts occurred with a line of thunderstorms across portions of south central Nebraska and north central Kansas on the evening of July 2nd. Fairly typical summertime weather pattern occurred on this day in which scattered thunderstorms developed over the High Plains during the late afternoon, posing a tornado and large hail threat, then organized into a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) as they shifted eastward through the evening into an increasing moist, and unstable environment. As is often the case with QLCS events in this part of the country during this time of year, severe wind gusts were the primary threat. Thunderstorm mergers over extreme southwest Nebraska and northwest Kansas promoted the development of a significant pool of cold air which caused a segment of thunderstorms, within the broader line of thunderstorms, to quickly accelerate eastward into western portions of the County Warning Area (CWA) between 7-8pm CDT. By the time this activity arrived it already had a history of producing widespread 60-70mph wind gusts, and even isolated 70-80+mph wind gusts in the vicinity of Hill City, Kansas. The bowing line of thunderstorms continued to produce a swath of severe winds as it moved through the southern half (or so) of the CWA through the late evening hours. For north central Kansas, severe wind reports were most concentrated across areas south of Highway 36 and west of Highway 281. The strongest reported gust was 70mph in Plainville, Kansas. Damage to trees and power lines were the main impacts of the severe wind. The strongest thunderstorm cores, on the leading edge of the QLCS, exited the area to the southeast by around midnight. Trailing stratiform rain lingered for a couple more hours.||As mentioned above, the meteorological conditions were quite typical for this area for early July. A warm and moist air mass and steep mid level lapse rates supported very strong instability (MLCAPE 4000-5000 J/kg) across a large portion of the Central Plains. A broad upper level ridge axis was in place from the southern Plains into the Upper Mississippi River Valley, resulting in weak southwesterly flow aloft. Because of the upper ridging, deep layer wind shear was weak at less than 30 knots, with much of the shear owing to veering of wind direction in the low to mid levels. This indicates that primarily mesoscale features such as an MCV and a strong cold pool were the main factors that supported severe wind in this event, and not synoptic scale features. Downdraft CAPE values in excess of 1500 J/kg were indicative of the strong potential for cool pool development.
A quick-moving line of severe thunderstorm wind gusts raced from southwest-to-northeast across parts of this six-county North Central Kansas area on this Sunday evening, mainly between 7-9 p.m. CDT. While strong gusts of 40-55 MPH were fairly common across much of the area, the primary swath of damaging winds in the 60-75 MPH range impacted Rooks, Phillips, Smith and northwestern Osborne counties. A few of the most impressive measured gusts from personal weather stations included: 75 MPH south-southwest of Stockton, 73 MPH north-northeast of Codell and 70 MPH near Damar. In addition, airport sensors at Phillipsburg and Smith Center clocked peak gusts of 62 and 59 MPH, respectively. As for actual wind damage, the majority of ground-truth reports focused in Rooks County, including downed power poles in Stockton and Zurich, and large tree branches knocked down in Plainville. ||Tracing this storm complex back to its roots, it originated in east-central Colorado during the early-to-mid afternoon, before occasionally flaring up to severe levels as it traversed parts of northwest Kansas mid-to-late afternoon. However, the aforementioned, concentrated corridor of damaging winds did not really take shape until shortly before storms entered the local area into Rooks County. In the mid-upper levels, the main instigator was a low-amplitude shortwave trough lifting east-northeast into northern Kansas from the west. At the surface, convection was largely tied to a triple point centered over western portions of the Nebraska-Kansas border, featuring the intersection of a 1000 millibar low, a north-south oriented dryline, and a northeast-southwest oriented cold front. Early evening mesoscale convective parameters in North Central Kansas featured around 1000 J/kg mixed-layer CAPE and 30-40 knots of effective deep-layer wind shear.
The first true near-blizzard to blizzard conditions of the 2018-19 winter season struck mainly Phillips and Rooks counties in western portions of North Central Kansas on this Thursday, causing not only many of the usual winter storm disruptions, but also snarling post-Christmas travel. Snow totals themselves were not very impressive, with reports from a combination of NWS cooperative observers and CoCoRaHS observers including: 2.5 at Logan, 2.2 east of Phillipsburg and 1.3 near Plainville. However, snowfall analysis maps and satellite imagery strongly suggest that far northwestern Phillips County likely received at least 3-4. Farther east, most of the remainder of this six-county area saw well under 1, if hardly any at all. That being said, winds were certainly a major factor, as much of the 27th featured sustained north-northwest speeds of 25-35 MPH and frequent gusts of 40-50 MPH, resulting in considerable blowing snow and reducing visibilities to well-under one mile at times. ||Breaking down event timing, and initially backing up a bit, this storm started off very similar to the one four weeks prior, and with something fairly unusual for this time of year: soaking winter rain! In fact, Wednesday the 26th featured widespread rainfall of 1-2 across all of North Central Kansas. As colder air invaded late that night, rain quickly changed to snow, with at least near-blizzard conditions already reported by sunrise in Phillips/Rooks counties. However, the majority of accumulating snow and overall-worst conditions focused between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., with very little snow thereafter. In the mid-upper levels, the primary player was a powerful, large scale trough, with its center tracking from NM on the 26th, to western KS by daybreak on the 27th, then northward across eastern NE into MN during the afternoon and evening. The associated strong surface low pressure system started the morning of the 27th over central Kansas (pressure around 996 millibars), before steadily marching to around Kansas City by mid-day and the IA/MN border by evening. On a climate-related side note, this event put an exclamation point on an incredibly wet December, as most of North Central Kansas received between 2.50-3.50 of precipitation for the month, or generally 300-500% of normal! For most official stations, it was a Top-3 wettest December on record, and was the outright-wettest at places such as Beloit.
News
NJ congressman demands answers from JCP&L about multiple outages
Congressman Frank Pallone has sent a letter to the president of Jersey Central Power & Light, demanding that the utility offer detailed explanations about outages that affected his district on Jan. 17, 21 and 26.
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Power Outage FAQs
What is Power Outage?
Power outage (also called a power cut, a power blackout, power failure or a blackout) is a short-term or a long-term loss of the electric power to a particular area.
What Causes Power Outages?
- Severe weather (high winds, lightning, winter storms, heat waves, rain or flooding can cause damage to power lines or equipment);
- Other damage to electric transmission lines (vehicle accidents, trees, and animals can cause damage to power lines or equipment);
- Repairing, maintenance or upgrades on power lines and equipment.
What are the Top Outage Safety Tips?
- Stay away from the downed power lines, park vehicles in protected areas;
- Unplug appliances and electronics, limit cell phone use to conserve battery life;
- Use portable generators outdoors only, well away from open windows and doors;
- Pack perishable foods into a cooler, keep refrigerator and freezer doors shut as much as possible.
Phillipsburg, Kansas
City | Phillipsburg |
County | Phillips |
State | Kansas (KS) |
Country | United States |
Zip Codes | 67661 |
Wind gusts estimated to be near 70 MPH resulted in the destruction of an 8 foot by 12 foot shed and a grain elevator leg blown down in Stuttgart. In the Prairie View area, power lines and power poles were damaged.