A windy day in the Northland on Wednesday, Dec. 15 turned into a windier night, prompting severe storm warnings, tornado scares, power outages and widespread tree and property damage.
The unseasonable storm, marked by a warm, windy day with a high in the 70s, knocked out power to much of Platte City and surrounding areas for most of the night. Some homes suffered roof damage from falling trees.
On Monday, the National Weather Service identified the strange weather as a derecho, defined as a widespread, long-lived wind storm associated with a band of showers and thunderstorms. To be officially classified as a derecho, the wind damage associated with the event must extend more than 240 miles with wind gusts of at least 58 mph or greater for most of its path.
After the storm blew through, emergency services received dozens of calls about the smell of smoke in the area. The smoke was reported as far north as Maryville and extended south of Kansas City. Fires in western and central Kansas were the cause, with the storm front pushing the smoky air across the plains.
Customers of Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative were affected in several ways. At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, the height of the windstorm, over 500 PCEC members were without power. Of those, 93% of services were successfully restored within four hours.
Wind gusts caused significant damage to the Platte-Clay Fuels gas station owned and operated by PCEC in Platte City. The station experienced temporary closures for equipment to be inspected and repaired.
Over the past several years, the cooperative’s Reliability Improvement Plan has included a special focus on mitigating the impact of high winds on the co-op’s grid. Wind dampeners have been installed on power lines in areas known to have a high potential for wind damage to electrical infrastructure.
After completing restoration work in the Northland, a crew of Platte-Clay linemen deployed to assist United Electric Cooperative in Maryville with restoration efforts. In June, United provided mutual aid crews to assist PCEC after strong storms damaged power lines throughout the Northland.