Going into Sunday, West Penn Power prepared for possible widespread outages in the area due to forecast heavy winds, including in Butler County.

Todd Meyers, a company spokesman, said Friday that their internal weather forecasters believe the county is in for sustained winds between 25 and 35 mph. Isolated gusts may move as fast as 60 mph, he said.

“This is the kind of weather that takes trees down,” Meyers said.

The weather system, he said, is rather widespread, meaning the company can't concentrate their crews in the areas that are most likely to be hit as usual.

West Penn Power is the local division of First Energy Corp., which operates in six states. West Penn and nine other utility companies within First Energy prepped for Sunday's windstorm.

“What we can do is alert all the guys that they may get called out,” Meyers said. “All our tree trimming contractors will be key in this, and they'll be out for us too.”

Strong winds may last much of the day and into the night. If they're too fast, winds may be enough to delay efforts to restore power — bucket trucks can't raise crews into the air if winds are too strong, Meyers said.

“We can only work as quickly as our safety practices allow,” Meyers said.

The National Weather Service of Pittsburgh offered a similar forecast Friday. Meteorologist Rich Redmond said they believed winds would hit hard.

“When the wind starts, it's going to get going very quickly,” Redmond said.

The system looks particularly threatening because soil here is intensely wet. Soil saturation data Friday showed the region at the very top of their scales, Redmond said. That means trees will come down much easier than normal, he said.

“Fortunately, trees don't have leaves on them right now,” Redmond added. “The leaves can act as a big umbrella and increase the risk.”

The storm doesn't look to be bringing much precipitation or extreme colds.

Meyers warned that people should watch out for downed wires. Any spotted wires should be reported immediately and treated as though they are live.

Generators ought to be used with care, as improper use can flood a home with toxic fumes.

If a generator is hooked into a home's electrical panel without turning off the home's main break, line workers can be shocked by surprise voltage flowing back into a line that's supposedly dead, according to West Penn.

Looking well into the future, Redmond said there is good weather ahead.

“By the second half of March, winter might be over,” he said. “I don't want to stick my neck out too far, but it looks like we will see a trend of above normal temperatures that will continue through April.”

In case of outages

To report outages to West Penn Power, call 888-544-4877. Central Electric Cooperative customers can report outages to 800-282-8610.