Lightning strikes to power poles knocked out electricity to Red Deer residents twice this week.
The most recent lightning strike happened shortly before 10 a.m. on Thursday morning and impacted residents north of 67th Street.
“The power was only out for 15 minutes for a majority of the customers and we’re working on the rest of the customers in Queens and Edgar Industrial Parks,” said Alex Monkman, acting utilities manager with the city, at about 11:30 a.m.
Power was restored to the industrial areas within a short period of time.
On Wednesday night lightning hit a power pole in Riverside Meadows and affected the same area of the city to knock out electricity for a short time.
We are aware of an unplanned power outage affecting north #RedDeer. Crews are responding and expect to restore power before midnight. In the meantime, if you’re impacted here’s some tips that can help: https://t.co/TIHJqmiCCY
— The City of Red Deer (@CityofRedDeer) August 10, 2023
The week started off with a short power outage on Sunday, also in the north end. The cause was unknown.
Related:
‘Widespread power outage’ affects people in North Red Deer
Last week power went out in the north end due to an infrastructure issue last week on August 2 at about 11 a.m.
Monkman said the crews who investigated found one of the switch gears was faulty and replaced it. About 98 per cent of customers had their power restored within an hour and a half, and the rest by 7 p.m.
Sara Hoffman, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change, said thunderstorms are typical Alberta weather from about June to August.
“Red Deer is definitely in the line of fire in terms of thunderstorm movement. They’ll form on the Foothills, sort of around Rocky Mountain House, and then they’ll drift eastward,” Hoffman said.
And no thunderstorm occurs without lightning. Lightning causes thunder, she added.
On Thursday morning a thunderstorm went right through the city.
“Most parts of the city would have seen a lightning strike or two.”
She said the prairies always have very active summer weather, but it should soon slow down as farmers begin harvesting crops which cuts down on the moisture in the atmosphere, and moisture is one of the puzzle pieces when it comes to the formation of thunderstorms.
“It feels cooler and drier very quickly when those crops are all off the fields.”
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
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