Jan. 9—The National Weather Service in Huntsville now forecasts up to 4 inches of snow for Morgan, Limestone and Lawrence counties starting late Thursday night and continuing into Saturday morning.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides power to all local utilities, is gearing up to manage high power demand throughout the region this week, but spokesman Scott Fiedler does not believe they will see peak demand, as they did in January 2024 during Winter Storm Heather.
“We’re not looking to break a record this week, but we know it’s going to be extremely cold across our entire region and we’re ready to provide people the power they need to stay warm and safe,” Fiedler said.
NWS meteorologist Dana Griffin said 2 to 4 inches of snow will begin to fall overnight Thursday and said low temperatures could prevent the snow from melting quickly throughout the weekend, not rising above 40 degrees until Sunday. He said weather conditions should begin improving then.
“Higher amounts of snow are to be expected more into the far, northern half of north Alabama on into southern and middle Tennessee,” Griffin said.
Griffin said areas south of Decatur, like Cullman County and central Alabama, will likely experience freezing rain instead of snow.
He said there could be some residual freezing Friday night into Sunday, which could cause black ice on the roads.
Fiedler said that on Jan. 17, 2024, TVA reached its highest power load in its over 90 years of operation, generating 34,577 megawatts, which he said was enough to supply power to 20 million homes. During Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022, TVA instructed its local power distributors to implement rolling blackouts in their service areas to manage power supply and demand to prevent a total blackout. Fiedler said the TVA Cumberland Fossil Plant in Cumberland City, Tennessee, had to shut down during this time due to maintenance issues, forcing TVA to curtail loads.
“(Cumberland) is a multi-story open facility and Mother Nature brought the ice, the snow, the wind and it froze up critical components,” Fiedler said. “Our teams worked quickly to try to get the plant back online, but that was some of the reasons why we had to curtail load.”
Fiedler said TVA has since invested over $400 million to strengthen the Cumberland facility and its entire network of plants, which includes over 100 natural gas plants, three nuclear plants, 29 hydroelectric plants and four coal plants, to prevent future rolling blackouts.
He said all of their plants now have upgraded insulation, enclosures around exposed and vulnerable equipment, and modernized heat trace technology.
Patrick Turner, director of operations at Joe Wheeler EMC, said his crews will begin collecting utility poles and transformers on Thursday ahead of the winter storm. The electric cooperative serves all residents living in Morgan and Lawrence Counties except for Decatur, Hartselle and Courtland.
“We prepare for any lines down or broken poles by going ahead and loading up poles and generators so that if we do have to roll a truck out, they’ll have that material and stuff already out there with them,” Turner said.
Turner, a former lineman, said during a winter storm, line crews can work up to 24 hours or more.
“If we can see where we can restore power within 24 hours, we’ll go ahead and work 24 hours instead of taking a break and coming back at it,” Turner said. “We try not to do much more than 24 hours.”
Turner said during power outages, his crews will prioritize repairing transformers and substations that feed power to medical facilities such as hospitals, urgent care centers and nursing homes and then the focus moves to areas that are more densely populated.
“Then, we’ll work our way out to more rural areas,” Turner said. “We try to get as many people on at one time as we can.”
Tuner said snow will likely not impact utility lines and poles, but freezing rain and sleet can “build up” on the lines and trees, potentially causing them to fall through the lines. He said the Joe Wheeler EMC right-of-way crews, which maintain areas around power lines, will be on call.
—
Getting rides
Several organizations will offer rides to essential workers during the anticipated winter storm.
Rocket City Wranglers plans to provide rides for medical workers in Decatur, Athens, Madison and Huntsville. Request a ride at https://tinyurl.com/yyr54hhp.
The 3Sixty Jeep Club will work with emergency management agencies in Morgan, Cullman and Marshall counties to offer transportation and recovery assistance. Request a ride at 3sixtyjeepclub.com.
Limestone Rides will provide transportation to essential workers and emergency responders. Request a ride at facebook.com/groups/383371907708814.
— wesley.tomlinson@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2442.