Straight Line Winds Down Trees, Knock Out Power Saturday
Straight Line Winds Down Trees, Knock Out Power Saturday
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Straight Line Winds Down Trees, Knock Out Power SaturdayStraight line winds Saturday caused damage across Kosciusko County and beyond, as well as knocking power out to thousands of people.
Rachel Cobb, meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the strongest winds measured were at Grissom Air Force Base at 62 miles per hour, however, radar indicated winds could have been around 70 mph.
“Seventy-mile winds can uproot trees. Straight line winds can do some damage,” she said.
Rain fall Saturday measured 2.17 inches in Winona Lake, Cobb said. In Warsaw, near Tippecanoe Lake, about 1.39 inches fell. “Most places there was between 1 to 2 inches of rain Saturday,” she said.
Rain was lighter on Sunday, with only 0.13 inches of rain as of around noon.
Large hail also was reported with Saturday’s storm. Golf ball-sized hail was reported in New Haven Saturday, Cobb said.
As of Sunday, NIPSCO’s website at https://www.nipsco.com/outages/power-outages reported 2,200 customers still without power.
Kosciusko REMC’s website stated it had 500 members still without power as of Saturday evening with crews continuing to work to get everyone restored. KREMC’s outage website is at https://www.kremc.com/outage-center.
A severe storm previously came through Kosciusko County on July 5, with a derecho hitting Northern Indiana on June 13. At the Fort Wayne airport on June 13, winds were reported at 98 mph.
Cobb said it’s not unusual to have strong wind storms in the summer.
“Every few weeks, we get storms that cause damage. It depends on which area,” she said. “Northern Indiana is a pretty prime spot for severe weather. ... We don’t get the big frequent tornados (like Tornado Alley), but we do get smaller tornados and frequent strong wind storms.”
A report on Saturday’s storm can be found at the NWS website at https://www.weather.gov/iwx/20220723_severewx
