Round 1 of two expected rounds of severe winter weather blew into Kingfi sher County on Thursday night.

A strong north wind brought with it chilling temperatures as part of an “arctic blast” that’s forecasted to affect much of the state - and region - well into this week.

Fortunately, chances of winter precipitation didn’t pan out, therefore travel conditions were only moderately affected.

But Round 2….? It may not be as kind. “Dangerously cold” temperatures and will chills well below 0 degrees are expected both Sunday and Monday mornings, according to the National Weather Service.

After Saturday, temperatures may not get back above freezing until Wednesday.

On top of that, snowfall is forecasted to begin Sunday and last until Monday morning “with the highest amounts possible across north central Oklahoma,” the NWS said.

The NWS map split Kingfisher County in half with the northern portion falling under a projected 3-4 inches of snow while the southern half could see 2-3 inches.

The arctic temperatures and potentially bad road conditions have utilities companies - locally and regionally - as well as other local crews in preparation mode.

The Southwest Power Pool is a regional transmission organization responsible for coordinating electric reliability for a 14-state region in the central United States, including Oklahoma.

In anticipation of the arctic weather, SPP has already declared multiple advisories for energy operators within its service territory.

Among those is a “resource advisory” for OG&E customers from 5 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 14, through midnight Thursday, Jan. 18.

The resource advisory doesn’t require the public to conserve energy, but it has been issued because it’s anticipated there will be a high peak demand for electricity due to the cold temperatures and low wind generation availability during that window.

The SPP doesn’t expect to have outages.

“While there is still uncertainty with the storm system, SPP is projected to have sufficient capacity to meet anticipated energy demand,” the release said.

SPP’s all-time winter peak load was 47,157 megawatts during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022. The projected load this week is 45,000 MW on Monday and around 46,000 on Tuesday.

OG&E said in its release that it’s made preparations for the storm as well.

“Each year, we prepare our power plants for winter by the end of October. The work we do includes building temporary enclosures around critical equipment and testing freeze-protection circuits, among other tasks that protect power plants and our people from extreme cold and winter weather,” the release stated.

“We also have made sure to have fuel on hand or available to purchase, if needed, to generate electricity throughout this weather event and beyond. We’ve increased our natural gas storage to help support our natural gas power plants, and coal inventories are at full levels at all of our coal power plants. All available units at OG&E’s power plants are operating and ready to support the grid during this cold snap and for the rest of the winter.”

More locally, Kingfisher City Manager Jim Thomas said the city has taken similar preparations as OG&E and is in position to assist the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority (OMPA) if needed.

“We have exercised our generators in the power plant to ensure if OMPA calls on Kingfisher to supply electricity for the grid, we are ready,” Thomas said.

“We have made repairs as needed with the power plant.”

Cimarron Electric Cooperative purchases its power from Western Farmers Electric Cooperative for distribution to its members.

“WFEC has been in communication with all their member co-ops, including Cimarron, this week to keep us updated on their efforts to prepare for the incoming weather systems and maximize their energy production,” Cimarron Electric CEO Aaron Roark said.

Roark added the local co-op is “closely monitoring guidance” from the SPP for any conservation alerts that may be issued and is prepared if there are any outages.

“As always, Cimarron’s employees stand ready to address any outages related to our distribution system as quickly as possible,” Roark assured.

“We’re thankful the forecast does not predict significant amounts of ice, which can have a catastrophic impact on our system.”

Though ice is not expected, snow accumulation is in the forecast, which could lead to travel issues.

City and county crews are ready, officials say.

“The county is prepping our equipment to be ready to clear roads in the event of snow accumulations Sunday and Monday,” said Heath Dobrovolny, chairman of the county commissioners.

“The courthouse will be closed Monday for the Martin Luther King holiday, but if roads are bad, the county road crews will be out.”

Thomas said city crews are ready as well.

“We have our share of salt and sand ready to disburse as needed on our streets,” Thomas said. “All of our equipment has been winterized and department heads have made preparations accordingly with regards to their facilities.

“We have added generators at our major facilities to ensure operations are not disrupted if we have power outages, which are new additions within the last five months.”