Electric grid agency ends weather advisory

 

Even though some record lower temperatures were recorded in Oklahoma Tuesday, the Southwest Power Pool, the agency controlling the electric grid in Oklahoma and 13 other states, brought an end to its Resource Advisory issued because of the extreme and bitterly cold weather.

“Due to improving forecast system conditions,” the agency said it ended the advisory effective 1 p.m. central time on Tuesday. The advisory had been initially declared

The Resource Advisory was initially declared for Sunday, January 19, 2025, at 12:00 a.m. CT, until an anticipated end time of Tuesday, January 21, 2025, at 11:00 p.m. CT.

The advisory did not require any conservation of energy by the public but was issued to raise awareness of potential threats to reliability among entities responsible for operating transmission and generation facilities.

It had been declared due to forecasted extreme low temperatures and the potential for higher than normal demand for electricity and resource outage uncertainty.  Temperatures Monday night and Tuesday morning were their lowest in the region reaching into the single digits and in some areas were zero degrees or lower.

The Oklahoma Mesonet reported Tuesday’s temperatures set records.

*  Lowest temperature ever recorded on a Jan. 21: -17 degrees, Beaver
* Lowest temperature recorded in OK since Feb. 16, 2021: -17 degrees, Beaver
* Lowest wind chill since Dec. 22, 2022: -33 degrees at Beaver and Hooker
* Lowest statewide average low temperature: -6.7 degrees
Oklahoma climatologist Gary McManus reported Beaver had the lowest temperature for a Jan. 21 dating back to the 1880s. The -17 at Beaver Tuesday morning eclipsed Alva’s -16 degrees from this date in 1984 as the new record lowest temperature. In fact,
several sites from Tuesday morning popped up in the top-5:
January 21 lowest temperatures on record (1888-2025)
Year      Location      Low T(F)
2025      Beaver          -17
1984      Alva            -16
2025      Cherokee        -15
2025      Hooker          -15
1984      Pryor          -13