The 2002 Central Plains ice storm was a major winter storm

Winter storm

A winter storm is an event in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are formed that only occur at low temperatures, such as snow or sleet, or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are low enough to allow ice to form...

 that affected the American Midwest, causing significant damage especially in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area

Kansas City Metropolitan Area

The Kansas City Metropolitan Area is a fifteen-county metropolitan area that is anchored by Kansas City, Missouri and is bisected by the border between the states of Missouri and Kansas. As of the 2010 Census, the metropolitan area has a population of 2,035,334. The metropolitan area is the...

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The initial storm

Up until the point of the storm the weather in Kansas City had been remarkably pleasant; The city appeared to be experiencing a mild winter, and 2 days before the storm the temperature was over 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

According to Weather Central;

Aftermath

The storm left up to 3 inches of ice over the affected regions on the evening of January 30. Affected infrastructure initially held, but began to crumble as the night wore on. Electric transformers were prone to explosion and in some cases created small fires, and trees shattered under the weight of hundreds of pounds of ice. After the 31st, more than 650,000 residents were without power, including 350,000 in the Kansas City metropolitan area alone and 250,000 in Oklahoma. In some cases, power didn't return to residents for nearly 14 days. Approximately 500,000 trees were affected in Kansas City alone, including two "Bicentennial Trees" which were estimated at being over 200 years old. States of emergency were announced by the governors of all three states. Then on the tail end of the storm, some places got snow on top of the ice that had fallen, only worsening the problem.