Texas Winter 2020-2021

[rolldamntoad]

On and off power, pipes frozen, deep snow I can barely walk through to haul buckets of water for livestock, single digit highs and now negative temps, more snow on the way...this isn’t fun anymore.

Paying your electricity bill and still having your power intentionally cutoff for approximately 17.5 out of 19 hours so far is hell. Temps inside houses and apartments are already in the 40s. What's the record low temp for indoors?

Texas-NM owns the lines here, so we pay their delivery fee. Last time we paid $77 of our bill to them alone. Something tells me we’re not getting $77 out of them right now and they won’t prorate us for this.

[Texas Snowman]

Officially hit 0 degrees at 1:55 a.m. here in Grayson County at North Texas Regional Airport. And it’s -1 at the Austin College Weather Station west of town. How much lower will it go by morning and can we break our all-time record low of -2 below?

[Texas Snowman]

Now -1 in Denison and Sherman. It’s -2 at the Austin College WX Station.

- 3 in Denton
- 2 in Gainesville
0 in Greenville, Bonham and Paris
2 in McKinney
3 at DFW

[Texas Snowman]

Also, at 2:30 a.m. every single MESONET reporting station in Oklahoma is below Zero.

[rwfromkansas]

Rough stories from the family staying here overnight. Their neighborhood has been without power for 15 hours! Sure they will have frozen pipes. Also they said they have a hot tub that will be a goner probably.

Sounds like my neighborhood? They live in Ponder?

We just got power again. It's been over 30min so fingers crossed.

So here's an update from one of us who's right in the middle of it.

Let me tell you this sucks. I've got a wife, and two sons 5 and 3. We cut water and drained the pipes because the power had been out since 3 AM this morning. Trying to avoid busted pipes. We got our fridge and freezer food outside to avoid it going bad. Some the fridge food is now frozen.

House inside temp was 48 when the heat just kicked on. We briefly had power around 6:30 ish for like 20min. We've been getting in our minivan to warm up, drive around the neighborhood and charge our electronics. We have unlimited 5G cell data with 15GB hotspots for both phones so we can connect our kids tablets and my laptop without issue. I have a TV/FM tuner for the laptop that runs over USB so we can watch TV live if need be.

I stocked up on Propane, food and bottle water. Bought a small indoor safe Mr Heater that runs on Propane to use during the day or to help warm up.

I've got family down towards Dallas that has power on and off so we opted to stay since we have what we need and have plenty of camping gear to stay warm when sleeping.

I'm so done with Winter. Seriously. I'm done. This will emotionally and financially ruin people and perhaps kill people. Depending on any damage to my home I'm now maybe looking at 2 deductibles as I was in the process of getting my roof approved from wind damage from a few weeks ago.

While I appreciate the passion on this site and totally understand it, I think we need to be mindful there are fellow humans hurting and scared right now.

Apologies for the rant but it's been a day. Not directed at anyone as I know we don't control the weather.

Back to bed, surprisingly the power is still on, been 45min.

Lake Worth. I am up because my wife smells gas outside. It is strong. But, we don’t have gas so must be carried in the wind.

[Tammie]

Snowing in Sherman. Lake effect again...

[TropicalTundra]

My power has been going on and off for 1 hour and it just turned off again. 3 degrees here. Portable generator is running right now. Haven’t had any time to check on the other storm for tonight. Hoping it’s not ice.

[Ralph's Weather]

Tyler is officially 1, the one nearby PWS is -1. It usually runs warm. With so many without power now way to know how far below -1 we are. I fell asleep. After many long nights and let the fire die more than I should have but have it back going. 55 in my house so not terrible. I am and have been running faucets very agressively so my water bill is going to suck but so far all pies seem to be flowing.

[Cerlin]

I’m extremely grateful to be in Oklahoma right now. My dorm still hasn’t lost power while my family back in Texas have been experiencing rolling blackouts and loss of internet, water, and heat. It sounds miserable there. We knew this outbreak would be historic but this is unbearable for so many. I saw that someone in Fort Worth is having to burn furniture just to keep the ambient temperature shone 38° in their house. It’s terrible for everyone with a roof over their head, which makes it near impossible for anyone without a roof over their head to survive. I’m praying for everyone who is dealing with the struggles of the past few days. Stay strong and stay warm if at all possible.

I’m so confused, however, how Oklahoma was able to manage this crisis so much better. With over a third of Texans without power, the cold snap has ravaged through the infrastructure of Texas. However, despite being more north and getting colder temperatures, Oklahoma has only briefly experienced rolling blackouts and most everyone has been okay with keeping power. Is it due to more people being in Texas? Is it due to the separate Texas grid from the federal grid? Is it due to neglect and underfunding a failing power grid that would break once something abnormal occurred? I saw a statement from ERCOT in TX that they had “no idea” this would be so devastating—did they not check with ANY meteorologists more than 2 days ahead of the winter storm? I’m just puzzled and looking for answers. I hate seeing so many Texans in dangerous and threatening situations because of this massive power outage and frustrating knowing that it should be like Oklahoma.

[AubreyStorm]

@NWSFortWorth

4:30am - Here's a look at the current temperatures across the region. Dangerously cold conditions continue. If you don't have power, here are some safety tips to keep yourself warm!

Here in Denton (-6)

[Texas Snowman]

Now -3 with light snow in Denison and Sherman (at NTRA, the old Perrin AFB).

That breaks the previous record of - 2 and sets a NEW ALL-TIME RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE MARK.

Historically cold air mass for Grayson County!!!!

(EDIT: now down to -4 with light snow at NTRA and now -6 at the Austin College Weather Station west of town)!)

[ZeroGee]

California, and now Texas, are two good examples of what happens when you increase population/demand by a third in 20 years and don’t invest in infrastructure upgrades.

OK hasn’t had the deluge of cheap mid-density construction for a decade+ that is currently drawing, then losing, energy in this storm.

Power issues like this, in one form or another, are likely to become much more normal as long as profit is prioritized over reinvestment/redundancy.

I’m extremely grateful to be in Oklahoma right now. My dorm still hasn’t lost power while my family back in Texas have been experiencing rolling blackouts and loss of internet, water, and heat. It sounds miserable there. We knew this outbreak would be historic but this is unbearable for so many. I saw that someone in Fort Worth is having to burn furniture just to keep the ambient temperature shone 38° in their house. It’s terrible for everyone with a roof over their head, which makes it near impossible for anyone without a roof over their head to survive. I’m praying for everyone who is dealing with the struggles of the past few days. Stay strong and stay warm if at all possible.

I’m so confused, however, how Oklahoma was able to manage this crisis so much better. With over a third of Texans without power, the cold snap has ravaged through the infrastructure of Texas. However, despite being more north and getting colder temperatures, Oklahoma has only briefly experienced rolling blackouts and most everyone has been okay with keeping power. Is it due to more people being in Texas? Is it due to the separate Texas grid from the federal grid? Is it due to neglect and underfunding a failing power grid that would break once something abnormal occurred? I saw a statement from ERCOT in TX that they had “no idea” this would be so devastating—did they not check with ANY meteorologists more than 2 days ahead of the winter storm? I’m just puzzled and looking for answers. I hate seeing so many Texans in dangerous and threatening situations because of this massive power outage and frustrating knowing that it should be like Oklahoma.

[Texas Snowman]

A few current cold morning temperature readings around Texas and Oklahoma (and it’s only 6:25 a.m., they can easily continue to fall for another hour or two):

Stillwater- 11
Claremore - 11
McAlester - 9
Ada - 8
Oklahoma City - 7
Ardmore - 7
Denton -6
Bridgeport - 5
Denison/Sherman - 4
Bonham -4
Paris -4
Athens - 4
McKinney - 4
Wichita Falls - 3
Nacogdoches- 2
Greenville - 2
Longview- 2
Mineral Wells -2
Fort Worth - 1
Durant - 1
Tyler 0
Brownwood 0
Abilene 0
DFW/Dallas 1 (may have reached - 2 earlier)
Stephenville 1
Rockwall 1
Waco/Hewitt 2
Austin 8
Bryan/College Station 8
Houston 13
Beaumont 14
Angleton 16
Galveston 21

[lukem]

Albany got down to -5.

[Texas Snowman]

It’s now - 1 degrees at DFW International Airport!!!!!

[Texas Snowman]

@NWSFortWorth — 5:34am - So far this morning, DFW Airport and Waco (official climate sites) have dropped down to -1F. The last time both locations were below 0F was December 23rd, 1989. #dfwwx #ctxwx #txwx

[Texas Snowman]

@NWSNorman — So far this morning, the low temperature at Wichita Falls has been -8 F, occurring at 3:06 AM. This is a new record low temperature for the day and only 4 degrees from tying the all-time record low temperature for Wichita Falls. #texomawx

[Texas Snowman]

@NWSNorman — The official Oklahoma City temperatures at Will Rogers World Airport has fallen to -14. This is the coldest official OKC temperature recorded since February 12, 1899.
#okwx

[Texas Snowman]

@NWSNorman — So far this morning, the low temperature at Lawton has been -12 F, occurring at 4:53 AM. This is a new record low temperature for the day and also a new all-time record low temperature for Lawton. The temperature could fall another degree or two in the next hour or two. #okwx

[Texas Snowman]

@TxStormChasers — New ALL TIME RECORD LOWS:

Tyler: -6F
Longview: -5F

Records in Tyler date back to 1883 and 1902 in Longview.

#txwx