Ice Storm — Sedgwick, Kansas

2007-12-11 · Sedgwick, Kansas

Event narrative

A half to one inch of ice accumulated across northern Sedgwick County during the ice storm. This resulted in approximately 100 downed power poles and 400 downed lines. Damage to the electrical infrastructure is estimated at $1.9 million. The city of Wichita was spared the full brunt of the storm as temperatures hovered around 32 degrees all night. Several hundred to several thousand people lost power in the city though.

Wider weather episode

A devastating freezing rain event unfolded across parts of Southern and Central Kansas from December 10th through the 11th. At the same time an Arctic air mass was moving south into the Central Plains, a mid and upper level storm system was spinning in the Four Corners area. This storm system allowed for very warm and very moist conditions to override the Arctic air. The result was a very large swath of freezing rain that in some areas approached two inches thick. The weight of the ice encrusting everything, which adds nearly 2 tons of weight to a typical line span, resulted in thousands of downed power poles and tens of thousands of downed power lines. This naturally resulted in tens of thousands of Central and Southern Kansas residents losing power, some for more than a week. Some estimates place the number without power at one point was nearly 200 thousand across the state. An unknown number of trees were damaged or destroyed in the ice storm with some cities reporting more 80 percent of trees sustaining some form of damage. Damage to just the electric infrastructure will likely top $100 million. Damage to trees could add millions more to the final tally.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 68576. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.