Early morning microburst causes damage and power outages
Bingham and Bonneville countiesexperienceda strong thunderstorm early Thursday morning.
KIFI Chief Meteorologist Michael Coats says the storm came through around 2 a.m. with a microburst over portions of Bingham county. “A microburst is a localized downdraft from a thunderstorm, we can see extensive damage and power outages. Microbursts are not tornadoes, but can cause similar damage to an EF-0 or EF-1 tornado.”
The National Weather Service in Pocatello reports seeing the thunderstorm on radar around 1:50 am near Springfield. The storm then pushed into the Blackfoot area around 2 a.m. Severe Thunderstorm warnings were issued a short time later for Bingham and Bonneville counties.
The weather station in Blackfoot reported a 56 mph, wind gust around 2 a.m. The Blackfoot Rest Area weather station along interstate 15, also reported a 56 mph wind gust a short time later around 2:15 a.m.
Update 2:30 pm: Rocky Mountain Power reports that power was restored to all customers at 2 p.m. on Thursday.
Update 1:45 pm: Power has been restored to more customer in the Shelley and Firth areas. Rocky Mountain Power reports that power is still out to around 147 customers. They estimate that power will be back for those customers at 3 p.m.
Update 12:50 pm: Power is still out for Rocky Mountain Power customers in Firth and Shelley. According to their outage website around 1,125 customers are still without power. Rocky Mountain Power estimates the power to be back on by 1 p.m.
Update 12:25 pm: Idaho Power is reporting that power has been restored to all customers.
Update 11:15 am: Idaho Power is working to restore power to the areas in and around Blackfoot. At this time around 1,130 customers are still without power.
The primary affected area is Northwest of I-15 between 400 W to 700 W, 100 North to 100 South and Hwy 39 to Frontage Road. A second smaller outage is also being addressed at 200 S to 250 S and 900 W to 1100 W.
Original Story: Idaho Power says an estimated 2500 people are without power in the Blackfoot Area.
The outages were due to the severe thunder storms early Thursday morning.
Some of the affected areas include:
Idaho Power says multiple wires and trees are down.
Several crews are out working to safely fix the problem.
Right now there is no estimated time for when power will be restored.
