What do Spring showers bring? Sometimes, it is big power outages. Although the new seasons brings plenty of sunshine, it also brings a threat of spring storms. People worry bout winter weather, but big storms means that run a high chance of interrupting the power supply at your home.
Springtime greets Ohio with unpredictable weather that can change between breakfast and lunch. This can include lightning, heavy rain, and strong winds. When weather changes this quickly it creates conditions that can compromise your power. Outages can be inconvenient and dangerous to your business if you work form home or house .
Here are some potential power threats that come with spring in the Norheast Ohio:
High Winds
Severe winds often damage trees, causing limbs to fall off and collide with power lines. That makes Spring wind gusts are a real threat in the Ohio, resulting in short circuits or faults that interrupt power.
Downed trees are one of the major causes of power outages during strong wind storms, Even if you don’t live in a densely wooded area, you may still be at risk. Even with falling trees, power lines can break under the pressure of severe winds.
Rain Storms
We’re all eager to see warmer weather, but lake effect snow will inevitably become heavy lake effect rain in the Spring. Combined, heavy rains and snowmelt can result in severe damage to both underground and overhead electrical equipment.
Rainstorms also lead to slick and unsafe road conditions which, believe it or not, also pose a serious threat to the power grid. A significant number of power outages are caused by vehicles colliding with utility poles. In 2015 alone, 2,000 vehicle accidents involving utility poles were reported—and that was only in the state of Virginia.
Small Animals
Small wildlife like squirrels can be cute company—but they can also cause destruction to electrical systems. In fact, squirrels, birds, and other small animals accounted for about 15% of unplanned outages. These outages are mainly due to the impact of chew-happy squirrels.
Squirrels have more of an impact than you may imagine. A single squirrel-induced outage can affect as many as 13,000 people at a time. Beware of the simple squirrel.
Lightning
Lightning is one of the most common causes of outages. Electrical equipment including utility poles, wires, and transformers are struck often by lightning. The impact of the strick is a loss of power.
Utilities not only are at risk for lightening strikes, but also by a phenomenon called “sferic.” Sferics are electromagnetic shock waves that ripple in all directions following—and sometimes preceding—a lightning strike. The result of sferic issue is that homes and businesses have experienced power outages before lightning strikes.
Prepare for Outages
One of the best ways to make sure you can minimize the impact of these Spring threats is to invest in a backup generator. Now that so many people are working from home, it is more important to make sure you keep your system up and running.
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