Iceresistance wrote:Power outages in Texas now over 300,000, 24% of Travis County, TX is without power
Austin is like San Antonio, where the city owns the power company, so potentially more subject to NIMBY politics. I checked a couple of foofoo neighborhoods and sure enough the tree growth was allowed way too close to the powerlines. Technically they may have been trimmed a bit so as to not touch, but pretty much the minimal. Plenty of instances of taller, large trees very close and within falling distance onto the upper power lines or poles, the lower other types of lines strung right through the middle of trees. Even if those lowers were designed to break away, they can still weaken/help cause a pole to drop when it's weighted down by ice on the power lines.
Looks like another "Don't you dare touch mah beautiful trees!" NIMBYhood:
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.3578905,-97.7626412,3a,73.1y,108.28h,100.57t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7SdK4EfZbXFJppb8v-bhSw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!5m1!1e1https://www.google.com/maps/@30.3580691,-97.7631002,3a,37.1y,86.32h,95.61t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sUpEpLKjTI6qj-IGQSbQ04Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!5m1!1e1DFW and Houston typically are trimmed further back. Then again, some consider DFW and Houston uglier because of that, so tradeoffs, I guess.
Anyway, down in NW SA we have another 24 hours of worrying about similar tree overgrowth knocking out power. The airport has been slipping back and forth between 33 and 34 (very slightly below projected), Boerne stays at 30, and it seems to be back at or below freezing where I'm at in between. Can't really see any melting of icicles, the earlier drips seemed to be more runoff from the drizzle/sprinkles. The longer the weight of ice remains, the greater the chance of more limbs breaking, especially since there's still some wind.
Surface roads appear fine for now, and the car windows have melted off (I'd guess the sun probably heated the interior enough to speed that up).
The Charlie Brown Christmas regrowth palm tree looks extra Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.