WINTER STORM NOW 12/08-11/2007: KS, OK, NE, MO, IA, CO, among others

[Mike Peregrine]

My mom is without power in St. Joe as well. It looks similar to Mound City from what she is telling me. Someone is stopping at her house to shut her water off now. They managed to keep power until 4:00 am. She describes hearing the "shotgun crack" explosions of trees disintegrating all night long. Sounds like it's pretty much devastated up there.

 

[Jim Zandonai]

We have had Freezing rain all morning but the temps have crept up to 32..so unlike last time when temps were in the upper 20s this time the 32 mark is helping us out for now..So far no major problems to report.. we did have some build up of ice on trees ..seems like some melted off a little.
Radar shows a huge area still moving in this direction so while this isnt a photo opp scene yet at least it looks good for power staying on for now. If we get more ice build up will post again with some pics.

 

[Joel Wright]

Approaching 1/2" glaze now. A lot of it seems to be melting on the streets and sidewalks, but it's still freezing to the objects above ground like trees and powerlines etc. Right at 32°. Most trees are really beginning to look weighed down. Only a matter of time before the ice storm starts amputating large limbs.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

It is a whole lot dangerous around here right now. Crap breaking left and right. Too many people out and about so I came back to the motel for a while. On the way in I smell smoke. Just before I got out I heard a big "errrr" sound and wondered where it was. Well I look south and a house is on fire and people are standing outside on road. I try to work around for a better view in the truck, while not getting in the way, and wound up down the loop at that old folks home. Trees on cars in there. I get under some of it and see the outlet part is blocked with trees. I back up park and get out to take some stills of the street and while doing so branch falls on the home next to me. I leave there, and look back at the house, which had quit smoking. The fire department shows up. They get out, fire truck running there with its lights on as the fireman goes in. Then crack branches falling on the fire truck. Still raining here.

I'm amazed the power went out again for 2 more hours, and they again got it restored.

LOL freaky! I get off here to get my cam, walk by the tv that's still not working. I mumble to myself, why don't you clean the damn dish off(yeah yeah so important, I know...but I'm sick of no sound....radio has serious issues here). At that exact moment the channels come back. That was strange.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

St. Joe is in the same boat. Mom says there is not a square inch not covered by downed trees. She doesn't dare step outside for fear something will come down on top of her. This is just a horrible mess -

 

[Maggie Kahman]

Well, Dont have to worry about anyone breaking in to my car....I got the best security system in the world....My car is completely iced over....

 

[Daniel Christianson]

My freind Ellie down in Falls City says there's some branches down and thye have had a few power flickers as well but still got power, well last time i heard from her. Mike H... you could always sing to yourself... Im stuck here in Mound City, In a Hotel Where Outside Its Icy lol..... better then nothing right?

 

[Joel Wright]

Well, looks like we've actually spiked above freezing now. Still raining moderately, and there may still be some slow ice accumulation on the trees, but for the most part I think it's just rain now. Really a saving grace. The models did not show this. We were forecasted by all the models to stay at least 30-50 miles north of the thaw line for the duration, yet it has creeped a bit north of Erie. This may make a disasterous icestorm more of just an average icestorm. Definitely good news for us as long as we can stay this warm.

Anyway, just stuck my head out the back door and snapped this pic. Not nearly as impressive as what some of you guys have posted (which btw, very impressive pics guys), but here it is. Right around 1/2" glaze still. Additional accumulations on hold until we (or if we) get back to freezing.

 

[Maggie Kahman]

Here's a thought to ponder: May 4th, 2007; a mile wide EF5 tornado plows through Greensburg, killing 9 people. This ice storm alone has already beed blamed for 22 deaths!! Makes the G-burg tornado look like a little dust devil...

 

[Jeff Snyder]

A power update from Oklahoma...

OG&E SystemWatch shows that power outages continue to rise throughout central and northcentral Oklahoma. In the OKC metro area alone, there are nearly 270,000 customers without power (116,000 customers without power in OKC limits), and outages beyond the metro are increasing as well. Through the OG&E area, total outages number nearly 295,000 customers. The latest numbers for northeastern OK (served by AEP-PSO) indicate 252,537 outages. So, for the two largest power companies that cover most of Oklahoma, current total outages combine to approx 547,000 customers.

OG&E estimates that each customer represents about 2.5 people. So, using that ratio, the PSO+OGE outage total of ~550,000 customers yields about 1,250,000 people in the state without power.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

This is what is happening to the trees now. Being reduced to a tall trunk with no branches.

There's one for an idea how this has accumulated here. Maybe 3/4 in around on the branch itself with lots of very long daggers hanging below that. Wonder what that would average out to if you could measure that surface area.

I almost missed the fireman going into the house all together.

That fell down as I stood near the tree in the street.

I really haven't explored too much yet. Some of the streets were really scaring me, as very large trees leaned out over them. I'd just rather not be squashed to death yet.

Precip appears done now, or mostly. Winds picking up, even a little, along with cooling temps, is going to surely lead to a lot more branch popping.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Incredible to me the fine differences in temperature involved in this whole deal. Kansas City is currently sitting at 33 degrees (downtown airport), St. Joe is reporting 32, and Falls City is at 30. Colder air is forecast to begin filtering its way south this afternoon, which I assume is going to freeze the stuff that has been falling all morning (and falling and falling). I still cannot believe how fortunate KC has been so far. During the periods of heaviest precip, KC has so far managed to stay a degree or two above freezing. I think that will be changing this afternoon. But this storm was amazing in terms of constant precip shield over such a huge area, which also happened to be the area that was a degree or two below freezing. Just enough for the worst conditions imaginable over those spots. I'm still interested in seeing what the afternoon has in store for Kansas City ... but as for the rest of northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas, they are simply toasted. There is not a tree left standing up there from what I'm hearing. At least we'll all have firewood in time for any similar events next year. A bit concerned with the winds as they turn to northerly ... they are forecast to come up quite a bit, which will take down whatever is left standing.

EDIT - here is the current story from St. Joseph. They are reporting 43,000 in the city (out of 75,000) out of power for the time being, with 10,000 out from Mound City to Maryville.

 

[Ben Prusia]

I am also very amazed the dodging of the bullet that the Kansas City area has been experiencing, but it appears that we will finally get some ice accumulations as winds from the north increase. It is 33 here outside in Gardner and most of my driveway has turned from a glaze of ice to just plain wet. We will see what the rest of the day turns out to be.

 

[Anthony Silver]

Looks like we missed the worst part of the storm here in the KC Northland. Got only about 0.3 inches of ice accumulation at my place. The roads were a little slushy as I was traveling into work this morning, but nothing too major.

Here's a couple of pics I snapped earlier:

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

As for me here in Olathe, at the airport just 200 yards from my house we have had 32F temps all day and current surface obs showing freezing rain is falling. I have a tree in my frontyard that has slowly started to till further and further to the ground. We have a few large tree branches down around the neighborhood, but I think we are not done yet. We will see filtering colder temps later in the day. With that precip shield not going anywhere fast, we could see a little bit more glaze, but the roads as of now are just soaking wet. I'm worried about the overnight temps dipping into the low 20s and freezing the roads completely over. Also the increase in winds are a concern especially in NW MO and NE KS we had a few strong wind gusts earlier and I heard a few loud pops in the distance from trees falling. I mean I could be wrong but seriously folks we should not let our guard down yet here in the KC metro area.