Texsox Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 We just spent over 24 hours below freezing and it's getting worse. I've seen forecasts of it getting down to 9 by tomorrow afternoon here in south central Texas. I can't believe I would be out ice fishing in this shit. I'm huddling in my upstairs staying warm. Holy crap y'all must really be suffering up nort' I did buy a new shirt. It's a big ol Texas flag with Secede? Y'all Better Hope We Don't Invade across the front. Now I realize you'll stop us with this cold weather crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CentralChamps21 Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 46 minutes ago, Texsox said: We just spent over 24 hours below freezing and it's getting worse. I've seen forecasts of it getting down to 9 by tomorrow afternoon here in south central Texas. I can't believe I would be out ice fishing in this shit. I'm huddling in my upstairs staying warm. Holy crap y'all must really be suffering up nort' I did buy a new shirt. It's a big ol Texas flag with Secede? Y'all Better Hope We Don't Invade across the front. Now I realize you'll stop us with this cold weather crap. Hasn't been above freezing here since the 4th and not expected to get back above until the 21st. Oh, and about 18 inches of snow on the ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 You are embarrassing all of us Midwesterners. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 Twentyfive years ago the first words of Spanish I learned was adios frio. There was ice outside of my glass. The only salt I wanted was on the rim of a margarita. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heads22 Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 Keep those pipes flowing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 Yuch. Several inches of snow overnight. Lost electric several times. Fortunately not for too long each time and the house stayed warm. This is a student holiday and teacher workday. I was going to be on Zoom conferences all day anyway. My landscaping is taking a pounding. I'm estimating $1,000 and a couple years growth time will be lost. The growth time is the saddest. No instant fix at any cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Sacamano Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 Heading to Florida on Sunday for a week. Can't wait to get away from work and this weather and relax. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 February man. Always absolutely brutal. It's a season in itself. Nov-Jan = Winter. Mar-May = Spring Feb is just shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iwritecode Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 (edited) I'm just looking forward to April 15th (ish) when my campground finally opens back up. Hopefully... Although there's no guarantee that the snow will be gone by then. I have pics on my phone from the last 2 Aprils where it snowed on the 17th one year and then the 27th the next year. Edited February 15, 2021 by Iwritecode Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turnin' two Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 21 hours ago, Texsox said: We just spent over 24 hours below freezing and it's getting worse. I've seen forecasts of it getting down to 9 by tomorrow afternoon here in south central Texas. I can't believe I would be out ice fishing in this shit. I'm huddling in my upstairs staying warm. Holy crap y'all must really be suffering up nort' I did buy a new shirt. It's a big ol Texas flag with Secede? Y'all Better Hope We Don't Invade across the front. Now I realize you'll stop us with this cold weather crap. Hope you all stay safe! Its just winter here, but for you guys, its new and dangerous. Accelerate slowly, and turn slowly. Make sure you have weight over the wheels (in a RWD vehicle) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted February 15, 2021 Author Share Posted February 15, 2021 Thank you. It's been 25 years since I drove regularly in snow. We're all staying home. The biggest challenge is most of Texas heats with electric. Our electric grid is in a stage 3 emergency situation which means rolling random blackouts. We have about fifteen minutes of electricity every hour. Most of the wind turbines are off line due to freezing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 There's about 1GW of wind offline, but the much bigger problem is 30GW of natural gas plants being down because the gas is getting rerouted for heating Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 (edited) tfw your jet stream collapses and lets artic air plunge all the way down to Mexico Edited February 16, 2021 by StrangeSox Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iwritecode Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 I'm just trying to make it through this week. We are supposed to have a heat wave on Sunday. High temps in the 30s and lows *ONLY* in the 20s. Plus more snow... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted February 16, 2021 Author Share Posted February 16, 2021 23 hours without electric. House was down to 41 degrees. It's baseball weather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Sacamano Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 Looks like it will be a high of 30s and 40s next week so hopefully some of this snow finally mets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted February 16, 2021 Share Posted February 16, 2021 12 minutes ago, manbearpuig said: Looks like it will be a high of 30s and 40s next week so hopefully some of this snow finally mets. It would already be a lot warmer very quickly if it wasn't for the snowpack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Allen Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 Guaranteed Rate Field parking lot being used as a snow dump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 Yikes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Parkman Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 This situation is the direct result of Texas exceptionalism and years of coddling Big Oil/ignoring climate change. It's up to the people of Texas to realize the error of their ways and hold the leadership accountable for this horrible situation. This WILL happen again in a few years and I can only hope that more people in that state wise up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 37 minutes ago, Jack Parkman said: This situation is the direct result of Texas exceptionalism and years of coddling Big Oil/ignoring climate change. It's up to the people of Texas to realize the error of their ways and hold the leadership accountable for this horrible situation. This WILL happen again in a few years and I can only hope that more people in that state wise up. While it has been suggested that the severe bends in the jet stream are climate-change related, that isn't fully accepted in in the literature yet. Intense weather systems hitting Texas aren't impossible every 10 or 20 years under the previous climate regime. It may not have happened this year without the changes humans have put in the atmosphere, but it would have eventually. There's a lot more work to be done to be able to attribute this one strongly to a human-driven climate change effect. If you want to talk about the poor design and multiple failure points in the Texas electric grid regulations and how that was the direct trigger for this, go for it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 (edited) ERCOT being it's own thing and not subject to FERC certainly doesn't help. More on how the failures here are by and large from fossil fuel plants, not a small amount of offline wind that people are trying scapegoat. If the grid crashes hard enough, everything starts tripping offline. And most power plants rely on off-site power to get started up, so restarting capacity is limited. Balancing across the entire grid is a very slow and delicate process. Edited February 17, 2021 by StrangeSox Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinky Stanky Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 On 2/15/2021 at 4:29 PM, Texsox said: Thank you. It's been 25 years since I drove regularly in snow. We're all staying home. The biggest challenge is most of Texas heats with electric. Our electric grid is in a stage 3 emergency situation which means rolling random blackouts. We have about fifteen minutes of electricity every hour. Most of the wind turbines are off line due to freezing. The turbines failing is the least significant cause of the TX power outages, but for some reason they're getting the most publicity. How come they don't freeze up in Iowa? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 6 hours ago, Stinky Stanky said: The turbines failing is the least significant cause of the TX power outages, but for some reason they're getting the most publicity. How come they don't freeze up in Iowa? Because you can winterize them to run but it costs money to do so. Same with all these plants. If regulations don’t require the utility to spend the money to prepare for extreme events, they won’t. 95% of the winters, that won’t matter and it keeps your costs low and profits high, but when it does, it can cascade into a giant failure. Anywhere else in the country, they could buy backup power from elsewhere at least to limit the hazard, but that’s where the isolated grid comes into play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Parkman Posted February 17, 2021 Share Posted February 17, 2021 10 hours ago, Balta1701 said: While it has been suggested that the severe bends in the jet stream are climate-change related, that isn't fully accepted in in the literature yet. Intense weather systems hitting Texas aren't impossible every 10 or 20 years under the previous climate regime. It may not have happened this year without the changes humans have put in the atmosphere, but it would have eventually. There's a lot more work to be done to be able to attribute this one strongly to a human-driven climate change effect. If you want to talk about the poor design and multiple failure points in the Texas electric grid regulations and how that was the direct trigger for this, go for it. That's what I meant by Texas exceptionalism. They're too busy being economic libertarians and playing Republic of Texas to actually be prepared for a situation like this. They think that's what makes them special. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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