Wx Infinity Forums

unome wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 9:17 pm

srainhoutx wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 8:05 pm Interesting to read the ERCOT provided a 40 second public comment on February 9th about "winter weather" could impact Texas. Seems to me that the alarm bells were being sounded around the end of January to only increase in the very early days of February that something "Historic" was on the horizon. Everyone was impacted from this winter weather event including my Family. My 87 year old Mom was walking around a soggy apartment with wet shoes and soaked socks after the pipes froze and burst with no power until my Sister convinced her it was time to go. Those that mocked the CAT 5 potential were very irresponsible. Thankfully we have a incredibly knowledgeable Weather Community that offered fantastic sound advice to those that were searching for answers.

So sorry to hear of everything your poor mom had to endure, Srain I hope things get better for her soon.

It was well forecast & we do have an incredible weather community here - thanks so much for your efforts to make this board a success, it has helped so many

Indeed. I hope your Mom, family and friends are OK!

This has been an epic Winter weather event for Texas and yes I feels it correlates to a CAT 3-5 event. Bottom line, you can be negative and hide or be positive and help. Just locally, neighbors were helping neighbors with generators and extension cords. Power off for 36 hours at our house. Candles and flash lights.

Had a low of 26.8. A little warmer than forecast. Fine by me. The cleanup begins.

Got to 30 when forecasted 28. Absolutely fine by me. Suns out! Warming up! Tearing down all prep (Leaving outside prep...since we are still in Feb). But just cleaned house. Heater off. Fans back on regular flow. Time for normalcy. This will be a week to remember. Oh the ease of mind I have now that the last crazy freeze night has passed. ...so far. Never looked so forward to spring then now... Have a great blessed day.

Is it too early to start the March thread? Im over February. Lol

Kinda scary how close we can to having physical damage to the power infrastructure. This article is good but I have read some others where we came really close to transmission lines catching fire, and then a cascading effect of transformers and substations getting fried. Thank god that didn't happen.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features ... f=5dj0X2VO

Well, all the winter/cold weather enthusiasts got what they dream of...lots of suffering and monetary losses for millions of people...

Ted wrote: ↑Sat Feb 20, 2021 11:20 pm Well, all the winter/cold weather enthusiasts got what they dream of...lots of suffering and monetary losses for millions of people...

I don’t think anybody dreams of getting into single digits and having pipes burst and losing power. I love winter storms but anything under 20 degrees is too cold and can cause major damage as seen with this storm.

TXWeatherMan wrote: ↑Sat Feb 20, 2021 11:33 pm

Ted wrote: ↑Sat Feb 20, 2021 11:20 pm Well, all the winter/cold weather enthusiasts got what they dream of...lots of suffering and monetary losses for millions of people...

I don’t think anybody dreams of getting into single digits and having pipes burst and losing power. I love winter storms but anything under 20 degrees is too cold and can cause major damage as seen with this storm.

Oh, I understand. You and I love different things...freezing weather is not one of mine...

TXWeatherMan wrote: ↑Sat Feb 20, 2021 11:33 pm

Ted wrote: ↑Sat Feb 20, 2021 11:20 pm Well, all the winter/cold weather enthusiasts got what they dream of...lots of suffering and monetary losses for millions of people...

I don’t think anybody dreams of getting into single digits and having pipes burst and losing power. I love winter storms but anything under 20 degrees is too cold and can cause major damage as seen with this storm.

Been saying it for years, since this forum went online. Lived in the '93 "superstorm" in Birmingham and lost power for over a week after 16" of snow. It's all fun and games until the power goes out. If I'm gonna see a blizzard or record cold, I'd rather experience it in a place where the infrastructure is equipped to handle it. I get the whole unique experience of 'nothing like in your own back yard' but the older I get it's just not worth the hassle when stuff starts to hit the fan.

My friends in Austin still do not have water with no immediate end in sight. FUN FUN FUN - NOT!

I'M SO READY FOR SUMMER.

jasons2k wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:49 pm Here is some info on plant survival from Frank's blog:

https://www.click2houston.com/weather/2 ... -survival/

Interesting tidbit about mosquitos too:

What about the SKEETERS?
So doesn’t a hard freeze like this kill mosquitoes for the upcoming summer? Can’t we get a break? I asked Rich Davis, Mr. Mosquito, who has the buzz:

“Unfortunately, it will not give us fewer mosquitoes this summer....the eggs lay dormant until the warmer, humid temperatures and then they hatch and breed.”

The snow and ice protect the ground against permafrost conditions. Even through only some of the mosquito species around here have internal "antifreeze" like they do in northern climates, mosquitos and their hatchlings will be back.

Nature "winterizes." Hopefully, we'll do the same before next time.

jasons2k wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 8:12 pm The disaster claims are also expected to surpass Harvey, becoming the costliest natural disaster in Texas history.

Hopefully, the applied science lessons from COVID-19 and the Texas Winter storms is prevention. Winterizing. Preventing and minimizing pandemics.

Particularly because places like the piedmont of NC sees this weather every other year or some. The NC mountains every year. MIssouris experiences this every year. Chicago and Minneapolis for about half the winter! Preventative steps for winter weather reduces summer A/C bills.

Insulate walls. This was a major issue for homes, businesses, and universities. I'm going to get serious about using blown insulation in walls this spring.

We were lucky. I used towels and blankets to insulate our (metal) garage door. When power was on, I used space heaters to warm the garage and thus the attic. Covered and insulated all outdoor pipes and faucets, and evacuated hoses, etc. I ran water for 30-60 sec every hour in pipes I had replaced all the door frame gaskets. Place a thermistor sensor in the attic and dripped water if temp in the attic fell into the 20s. We have a gas fireplace to heat the house when the power was out. We have a gas stove/range. I had shut down the sprinklers and let the snow and ice "insulate" (air pockets) at ground level do the rest.

Some will invest in generators, if they can afford it. Insulation is a lot cheaper for starters.

Dealing with the state gov, ERCOT etc. is going to be problematic...so we have to do all that we can to help ourselves and our neighboring Texas. "Winterize" becomes part of the SETX lexicon.

Having lived in Texas for 30 years, here are my observations about climate change in Texas.

1. The average temperature hasn't changed. This is the consensus of temperature recordings as well.

2. Summers aren't hotter. But they are drier.

3. Rain and drought extremes have always been extreme, but the variance has increased further. More "record" rainfall events. Longer periods of little or no rain.

4. Winters on average aren't any colder or warmer, but the variance has increased. Some winters are warmer, some colder. Extreme events are more frequent. In my first 17 years in College Station we had 3 ice storms, a few snowflakes. No nights in the teens. It snowed once in the 1980s. The only snow my kids ever saw was the Christmas. Even 2004 snow miracle in Houston and the Gulf Coast. However, from 2008 - today we've had 8 snow events. Nights in the teens, and just had 2 single digit nights this week.



Like the Boy Scout motto, we're going to have to be prepared in the future for weeks like this. Because there will be more.

jasons2k wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 8:12 pm The disaster claims are also expected to surpass Harvey, becoming the costliest natural disaster in Texas history.

I just don't see that being possible.

A little shell shocked here. We are wondering is there any cold air on the horizon or was this the finale of our winter.

Texaspirate11 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:27 am I'M SO READY FOR SUMMER.

I'd just take a very long Spring...


The problem now is I'm acclimated to cold weather. That only takes a few days.

It takes weeks for me to acclimate to 85-90°F...and never for 100°F.

sambucol wrote: ↑Sun Feb 21, 2021 11:43 am A little shell shocked here. We are wondering is there any cold air on the horizon or was this the finale of our winter.

Generably seasonable temps through early March in all of the models. Maybe a light frost or two. Don't see another Arctic outbreak in Texas.

I know there has been previous discussions/speculation about Snow events following active Hurricane seasons. I am curious to know if anyone has looked at Snow Events as a pre-cursor to an active Hurricane Season?

TxLady wrote: ↑Sun Feb 21, 2021 12:31 pm I know there has been previous discussions/speculation about Snow events following active Hurricane seasons. I am curious to know if anyone has looked at Snow Events as a pre-cursor to an active Hurricane Season?

Upper Texas Coast Tropical Cyclones After Snowfall (November to March)
https://web.archive.org/web/20191129235 ... nowhou.htm

February 1895-Tropical Storm #4
February 1899?-Tropical Storm #1
January 1912-Hurricane #6
January 1918-Louisiana Hurricane of 1918
March 1932-Freeport Hurricane of 1932
January 1940-Hurricane #2
January 1949-Hurricane #11
February 1958-Alma, Ella, and Gerda
February 1960-Tropical Storm #1
January 1961-Carla
January/February 1963-Cindy
February 1964-Abby
January/February 1973-Delia and Tropical Depression #11
January 1978-Amelia and Debra
February 1980-Allen and Danielle
January/February 1981-Tropical Depression #2, #4, and #8
January/February 1985-Juan
February 1989-Allison, Chantal, and Jerry
January 1995-Dean
December 2004-Rita
December 2009/February 2010-Alex, Tropical Depression #2, and Hermine
November 2018-Imelda

Includes Southwest Louisiana and South Texas.

Wide ranging from tropical depression to major hurricanes. Some are major hurricanes like Carla and Rita. Some are very wet storms like in 1899, 1981, and Imelda (2019). Many of these storms tend to be on the wet side. I included some storms that made landfall in South Texas, Mexico, and Central Louisiana.

Houston likely had snow in January 1886 as it snowed in Galveston that time. 1886 had Hurricane #1, Indianola Hurricane of 1886, Hurricane #8, and Hurricane #10.

The Great Freeze of 1885-1886
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/images/tbw/paig ... ze1886.pdf

Freeze of 1886
http://www.ausbcomp.com/%5C~bbott/subjects/freeze86.htm

In the January 1886 freeze, Galveston saw a low of 11°F That is the third lowest temperature on record for Galveston. Only February 1899 is colder.

Tompkins: Documenting Texas coast's big chills
http://www.chron.com/sports/article/Tom ... 687256.php

Snow in Galveston in 1895 (references snow in January 1886)
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2769867 ... n-in-1895/

It also snowed that time and Galveston Bay froze over. 1885-1886 is second in terms of snowfall amount after 1894-1895.

Threaded Extreme
http://threadex.rcc-acis.org/

Good afternoon folks. I got all of my plants back into the ground. I dug-up a few hundred bucks worth of tropicals, stuck them in buckets, and stored-then in my garage with some electric heaters running. Fortunately, it’s a four car garage with plenty of space. So that’s done and everything has been thoroughly watered.

I broke a little sweat wearing my short sleeves. It’s 71 outside. It’s never felt so great to have my H-town weather back!!