October 2020 - General Weather Discussion

[jn1780]

That is a scenario where they start rebuilding every single power underground and makes zero sense. It’s a ridiculous number thrown out to scare people so they can settle with imposing mediocrity on the city.

What powerlines should be buried underground? Its not really the main lines that are causing people to be out of power for days. These get fixed relatively fast. Its the above ground lines going through older neighborhoods with a line going to each house where you find neighborhoods with power out for days. Burying all these lines are what would cost the most amount of money. Google couldn't even make fiber economical and that is a lot easier than burying an electric line.

[jn1780]

Ours are buried and we still went down for 7-8 hours. If the substation goes down, you still lose power. But I agree, it's been very nice to have buried lines, my previous house downtown had above ground lines and it was a mess.

My neighborhood is buried, but last major storm season I was out of electricity for over a day. A handful of transformers on the ground had to be replaced by OGE. Burying lines: great for ice and wind protection, not so much for flood. I think the buried lines lose their protective coding after awhile and you need to completely replace.

[Pete]

Thankfully, last night I had my power restored. Even with my gas fireplace, my thermostat was showing 55 which is crazy cold for inside a house.

My office at 36th & Shartel is still dark and most of the traffic lights along Classen, 23rd and the surrounding areas were completely out as of last night.

It seems every single tree in OKC experience some sort of damage and many were completely lost. What an incredible mess. I can't remember a natural disaster as devastating.

[d-usa]

Drove past Myriad Gardens in the dark, but it didn’t look good.

[d-usa]

Drove past Myriad Gardens in the dark, but it didn’t look good.

[SoonersFan12]

Thankfully, last night I had my power restored. Even with my gas fireplace, my thermostat was showing 55 which is crazy cold for inside a house.

My office at 36th & Shartel is still dark and most of the traffic lights along Classen, 23rd and the surrounding areas were completely out as of last night.

It seems every single tree in OKC experience some sort of damage and many were completely lost. What an incredible mess. I can't remember a natural disaster as devastating.

It will get worse when winter starts

[Anonymous.]

Gusty winds will die down as we head through our Thursday. Fog will likely develop tonight, and with temperatures getting to near freezing - elevated surfaces in some areas will be slick by Friday morning. We will then quickly warm up to near 60F in OKC, and Saturday looks fantastic as well.

Looking into the first week of November, beautiful fall weather on tap with highs in lower 70s and lows in 40s.


Silver lining to the winter storm that just moved through, many areas across C OK received 4-5" of rain, with much of W OK getting 2-3".

[SoonersFan12]

I am glad we are finally getting some sun, the rain got old

[Libbymin]

It was catastrophic in my neighborhood. Lots of big old trees had fallen over and blocked the street going both ways. Some of those trees were probably older than me. Very sad to see as it was part of the charm of our area.

We had power for a while and then lost it Tuesday night but it came back Wednesday afternoon. Also, a BIG limb from my neighbor's tree fell on the roof of my house. Really freaking loud and really fun to chop up and get off of there yesterday. So far it doesn't look like it poked a hole in the roof, but it did mess up the gutter.

Ice sucks. Period.

[Bobby821]

Looks like we might be looking at more winter weather around the 11th of November give or take.

[Celebrator]

Thankfully, last night I had my power restored. Even with my gas fireplace, my thermostat was showing 55 which is crazy cold for inside a house.

My office at 36th & Shartel is still dark and most of the traffic lights along Classen, 23rd and the surrounding areas were completely out as of last night.

It seems every single tree in OKC experience some sort of damage and many were completely lost. What an incredible mess. I can't remember a natural disaster as devastating.

True while most trees sustained damage, driving around today I was struck with how many trees are still upright and just need to have the broken limbs pruned out for a new lease on life. Of course, ones that were uprooted like happen in major wind events won't survive this, but the majority will! We will have lots of ugly trees for a the next 3-5 years, but they are tough and want to push out new growth to survive. The area's canopy took a hit to be sure, but it will be back in time.

[Ohwiseone]

I lost power this morning after getting it back the previous afternoon.

I think a transformer blew not far from me. I am hoping I get it back sooner or later, but OG&E is saying it might be next week before everyone in OKC area gets power back.

I am convinced that I am going to move my family to a relatives house and then it will come back on.

[TheTravellers]

Thankfully, last night I had my power restored. Even with my gas fireplace, my thermostat was showing 55 which is crazy cold for inside a house.

My office at 36th & Shartel is still dark and most of the traffic lights along Classen, 23rd and the surrounding areas were completely out as of last night.

It seems every single tree in OKC experience some sort of damage and many were completely lost. What an incredible mess. I can't remember a natural disaster as devastating.

We got down to 51 last night, still no power, glad to see the sun today and for a while, and our median is insanely bad - 50+ year old sycamores and bald cypresses just shorn. We're in Venice.

[Bill Robertson]

We got down to 51 last night, still no power, glad to see the sun today and for a while, and our median is insanely bad - 50+ year old sycamores and bald cypresses just shorn. We're in Venice.

I know from previous posts that you're near where I grew up. I need to go by our old house and see how the tree in the front yard is doing. It has sentimental value because it came from a seedling from a tree I planted in the front yard of the house I had lived in that blew up on New Years a few years ago. The explosion destroyed the parent tree. I hope the ice didn't do the child tree in.
Also, I don't remember what year but dad was alive so before 2016 there was a similar ice storm and that area was without power for a week or so. My sister and I both tried to get mom & dad to stay with one of us but dad wouldn't hear of leaving home so we got a kerosene heater for them to at least stay warm.

[TheTravellers]

I know from previous posts that you're near where I grew up. I need to go by our old house and see how the tree in the front yard is doing. It has sentimental value because it came from a seedling from a tree I planted in the front yard of the house I had lived in that blew up on New Years a few years ago. The explosion destroyed the parent tree. I hope the ice didn't do the child tree in.
Also, I don't remember what year but dad was alive so before 2016 there was a similar ice storm and that area was without power for a week or so. My sister and I both tried to get mom & dad to stay with one of us but dad wouldn't hear of leaving home so we got a kerosene heater for them to at least stay warm.

Younger trees have fared pretty decent through this, so hopefully it's OK. Saw 3 out-of-state trucks drive down 35th this morning, one carrying a pole, but it was the opposite direction of where our power lines come from.

[sooner88]

Younger trees have fared pretty decent through this, so hopefully it's OK. Saw 3 out-of-state trucks drive down 35th this morning, one carrying a pole, but it was the opposite direction of where our power lines come from.

There were a lot of Par Energy Services (out of KC) trucks driving / working near Crown Heights and Edgemere yesterday. Hoping that this is a good sign for everybody still without power.

[Roger S]

The crew that got my neighborhood back on the grid was from Alabama. Wondering if they have already headed back SE to deal with the Zeta aftermath in that part of the country.

[TheTravellers]

The crew that got my neighborhood back on the grid was from Alabama. Wondering if they have already headed back SE to deal with the Zeta aftermath in that part of the country.

OG&E's Twitter said they had crews from 10 states working here and it's stretched thin because of Zeta, so, yeah,, big mess all over the mid-south-ish region.

[Bill Robertson]

System Watch shows under 200,000 for the first time since the storm got bad.

[Bill Robertson]

Younger trees have fared pretty decent through this, so hopefully it's OK. Saw 3 out-of-state trucks drive down 35th this morning, one carrying a pole, but it was the opposite direction of where our power lines come from.

I just went by my childhood house. The tree is probably 25ish years old. There are trees all up and down the street that are destroyed! This is Miller between 36th and 39th. "My" tree has a couple branches down but looks really good. And it's a very full tree that had to catch a LOT of ice. It very happy. I feel a lot odd being exited about a tree but I am!

[Dustin]

There are linemen in my neighborhood. I repeat, there are linemen in my neighborhood. Fingers crossed.

[mugofbeer]

I'm sorry such damage was done and so many have been without power. I hope everyone is back on now.

[TheTravellers]

There are linemen in my neighborhood. I repeat, there are linemen in my neighborhood. Fingers crossed.

Send them to Venice when they're done! All 3 corners around us have power, we're still without.

[Thomas Vu]

I have power again! I was out since tuesday morning. Lots of errands ran, staying in my car to be in a place with a heater.

[Bill Robertson]

This outage has been weirder than usual. At least around here. Pretty much the square mile from Rockwell to Council and a half mile N and S of Hefner was completely out most of Tuesday and Wednesday. Then parts of the same area would be off for hours off and on up until this morning. All except for about 20 houses, including mine, pretty much in the middle of said area which never lost power except for a blink here and there. I feel very blessed.

Another odd thing this storm caused. At work we changed all the EXIT light bulbs to LED a couple years ago. There are 2 circuits of EXIT lights both fed from the same 277/480 volt panel. Every single bulb on one of the circuits went bad Tuesday. Nothing else in the building was affected. I've never seen anything like this even with lightning which can do really strange stuff. And I've been a licensed Electrician since 78 and a licensed Contractor since 83. Most of that time I've specialized in service, trouble shooting and building automation & control systems because I like and am good at this type of thing. So I've seen a lot of strange stuff but this one is right up there with the strangest.