Ice Storm — Cuyahoga, Ohio

2005-01-05 to 2005-01-06 · Cuyahoga, Ohio

Wider weather episode

For the second time in just over two weeks, a devastating and historic winter storm affected Northern Ohio. Significant ice accumulations occurred over most of the area downing thousands of trees, causing widespread power outages and making travel nearly impossible. Low pressure over Missouri moved rapidly northeast on January 5th. This low moved across eastern Ohio early on January 6th and was responsible for producing a prolonged period of freezing rain. A mixture of rain and snow changed to freezing rain from west to east during the early morning hours of the 5th. Periods of freezing rain then continued for the remainder of the 5th and through the early morning hours of the 6th. Temperatures eventually warmed enough during the late morning hours of the 6th to change the freezing rain back to rain. The hardest hit locations were west of Interstate 71 along the U.S. Route 30 corridor. Ice accumulations of greater than three quarters of an inch were reported from Hancock County eastward across Wyandot, Crawford, Richland and Ashland Counties. Northern sections of Wyandot and Marion Counties along with the southern halves of Seneca and Huron County were also hard hit. Up to 80 percent of electric customers in these nine counties lost service during the storm, some for as much as ten days. In cities like Mansfield, Bucyrus and Findlay, nearly every property in some neighborhoods sustained tree damage. To the north and south of these areas ice accumulations ranged from one quarter to three quarters of an inch. Counties closer to Lake Erie saw snow mix with the freezing rain at times which kept ice accumulations down to around one quarter inch and resulted in only scattered power outages. A total of 3 to 5 inches of snow was also reported in these counties. Ice build up at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant (Ottawa County) damaged the facility enough to force it to be temporarily shut down. Hundreds of crews were brought in from around the county to help restore the power outages. In addition to damage caused by fallen trees and limbs, a lot of basement flooding occurred as power outages prevented sump pumps from working. Clean up and repair costs for this storm were among the highest ever recorded for a natural disaster in Ohio. Damage in many counties topped $1 million with a couple counties exceeding $10 million in losses. In Richland County alone, clean up cost accrued by local governments totaled nearly $6 million. Estimates indicate that as many as one million people lost power during this storm. Several power companies reported the largest number of outages in their histories. Hundreds if not thousands of homes and businesses were damaged by fallen trees, limbs and utility poles.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5435173. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.