A fast-moving line of morning storms knocked out power to more than 3,000 Oklahoma City metro customers Thursday, just a day after the region baked under record-breaking heat. Oklahoma County alone reported 2,214 households in the dark, according to an outage map, as firefighters fanned out across the metro to deal with downed power lines and lightning strikes.
The outages were caused by storms that swept across the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, as first reported by News 9. Oklahoma Gas & Electric reported that more than 3,000 customers across the metro were without power Thursday morning and estimated that restoration would occur between 12:30 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. OG&E serves customers in 258 cities across Oklahoma and Arkansas and has 905,946 total electricity customers, according to FindEnergy.
A Sharp Turn From Record Heat to Severe Storms
The disruption followed a dramatic weather swing. Record-breaking heat gripped the metro on Wednesday before a cold front rolled through overnight, bringing morning thunderstorms, small hail, frequent lightning, and heavy rain along and north of Interstate 40, per the National Weather Service office in Norman. That storm activity spread southward as power outages were reported.
The heat that preceded the storms wasn’t a one-day event. Oklahoma City had been stuck in a prolonged late-summer hot spell, with the National Weather Service repeatedly warning of heat index values reaching 108 to 109 degrees, Hoodline previously reported in a related report on the midweek heat. That kind of heat followed by sudden storm-driven outages can compound public health risks for residents whose cooling systems suddenly go dark.
Firefighters Respond to Downed Lines and Lightning Strikes
As the storms moved through Thursday morning, firefighters responded to downed power lines and lightning strikes across the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. A March Hoodline report advises residents to treat all downed utility wires as energized and to call 911 when they pose immediate danger…