KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Arctic blast, which is forecast to bring dangerously cold temperatures to the Kansas City area beginning Thursday, harkens back to a deadly storm that gripped the Midwest in February 2021.
But power officials and weather experts don’t believe this week’s storm will be as catastrophic as the Arctic blast two years ago, which crippled the ERCOT power grid in Texas and left nearly 300 people dead.
“The duration is shorter — five days versus 3 days,” KSHB 41 Weather Chief Meteorologist Mike Nicco said. “Plus, it’s not going to be quite as intensely cold, though that’s really splitting hairs.”
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Nicco said there are three factors, including the relative duration and intensity, that should help prevent a similar situation to February 2021.
Learning from the experience two years ago also should and the cold snap has been forecast for more than a week, providing ample time to prepare, Nicco said.
The incoming Arctic blast also covers a smaller area of the Midwest compared to the storm two years ago.
Two years ago, the Southwest Power Pool — a regional power transmission organization that covers parts of 14 states, including Kansas and western Missouri — mandated some providers undertake emergency controlled outages, commonly known as rolling blackouts.
Officials with Evergy, which were among the utilities that cycled off to help prevent the electric grid from failing, said such controlled outages aren’t expected Thursday, Friday and Saturday this year.
“With dangerously cold temperatures and potential heavy snow forecasted this week, Evergy currently has enough generation to meet customer demand across our service area,” a spokesperson for Evergy said in a statement emailed to KSHB 41.
Evergy also said it’s “ready to respond to outages as quickly and safely as we can,” though response times could be affected by road conditions.
The type of snow expected — dry and powdery as opposed to wet and heavy — should help prevent widespread outages, but could create difficult travel conditions with high winds blowing the snow around and bitter temperatures preventing much melting.
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“To ensure reliability for our customers, we monitor electric circuits and may proactively reroute energy and balance demand on the system if necessary to prevent loss of power,” Evergy said.
The power company encourages people to keep their cell phones charged and cars gassed up in case outages do occur.
Travelers also should prepare for the possibility of becoming stranded in the storm.
Fans planning to attend the Kansas City Chiefs’ game Saturday against Seattle at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium should plan ahead and take precautions when tailgating or at the game as frostbite is possible within minutes for exposed skin under the conditions forecast for the coming days.
Outages can be tracked on Evergy’s website.
The Southwest Power Pool issued a Weather Advisory on Monday “due to cold temperatures,” which may ramp up power consumption. It’s in effect from 8 p.m. on Wednesday through 10 p.m. on Monday, but it does not require the public to conserve energy.
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