Our backyard.
This week has been one for the record books, for sure, across much of the United States. Millions have lost power and water, especially across Texas, most of which is on its own electric grid separated from the rest of the United States. Snow and extended subfreezing temperatures are widespread, including many areas where the utility infrastructure is not designed for this kind of weather.
I lived for about 5 years in the greater Houston Texas area. While some winter days were chilly, and we had rudimentary natural gas heaters, I never saw temperatures much below the 50s that I can recall. The only jacket that I had was a windbreaker.
We have had a total of about 11 inches of snow between two storms and our temperature has been below freezing all week—it’ll probably have been 9 days of subfreezing temperature before it finally gets above freezing. The lowest we’ve seen is -3°F, I believe.
…and next week is supposed to be in the 60s!
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Hi Mike – I’m glad you’re safe … I just hope Texas doesn’t turn out to be as bad as it might be … sounds horrendous – but having lived through our 1962/3 freeze-up – 10 weeks of it … and I was not an adult at that stage – so thoughts are vaguely remembered … all the best to you and the Texans … Hilary
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I can only imagine what it’s like in Texas. After living in the high mountain desert of Idaho where we saw much, much colder temperatures than what we are seeing here, we are fairly well prepared. I have a woodshed full of DRY seasoned firewood just steps away from our back door. We can also power part of the house using the generator in our camper if we need to.
The people in Southern Texas are just in NO way prepared for this kind of extended cold snowy weather, especially when they lose power.
Mike Goad recently posted…Winter weather—snow & cold
I have relatives living in Texas and we are not getting good news. At least they are safe for the present is all that we can comfort ourselves with. They have to boil water for drinking and other purposes. It is that bad. There is a severe shortage of plumbers and frozen /bursting pipes are playing havoc with plumbing and leakages.
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Damage from frozen and broken plumbing is widespread and will take time to repair. The strategy of trickling water from faucets to keep pipes from freezing fails when customers lose water pressure when demand goes up because of broken pipes—even more pipes freeze. A lot of the pipes that are freezing are in the floors of apartment buildings—which are the ceilings for the floors below.
Our only problem right now is our heat pump keeps going into “emergency heat” mode. We’ll have to call a heating and air service for repairs but with the fireplace and space heaters, we are staying warm. I assume there are plenty of other people with more dire heating and cooling problems so we’re willing to wait.
Mike Goad recently posted…Winter weather—snow & cold
Wow, y’all received a lot of snow compared to us. With this last winter advisory, we received a few inches of ice! I would have preferred snow. Because of that, I opted to stay home on Thursday. Other areas in Maryland received snow! I work for a titling company, and one of our contractors is based in Texas. Our workload has diminished significantly since their business was without power. I think it was restored at the end of last week.
I thought about you and your wife, remembered you mentioned getting snow, so I decided to do my virtual rounds and check up on you. My next stop is her website. Wishing you and your loved ones a safe and healthy week.
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I would prefer snow over ice any day. Ice can be much more catastrophic, tearing down trees and power lines with the weight of the snow.
Our cold and snow event is essentially over. We still have snow on the ground, but with temperatures above freezing and a wind out of the south, there was a lot of melt today.
One casualty of the extended cold was our heat pump. We last had it replaced in the mid-1980s. It was obsolete and due for replacement. The service techs that came out couldn’t resurrect it this time, so we will be getting a new one. With changes in technology. it should be far more efficient than our old one. We have been staying warm with our fireplace and safe space heaters. I built a woodshed next to the house and it was full of dry wood, mostly well seasoned. It’s just steps away from our back door to to the door of the woodshed.
Mike Goad recently posted…Winter weather—snow & cold