Chill Factor of -13 in Dallas

[RoyGBiv]

Our daughter is currently in Spring, TX. The house she's staying in lost power at 2:30AM and the grid provider is telling them that they will not get power back today. She's on her way to stay with friends in Sugar Land. 45 miles through Houston. Fingers crossed for a safe trip.

According to some reports from Oncor (local grid provider here) about 38% of their customers were without power as of about noon today. Some of that is rolling blackouts, some of that is down and out. Lots of neighbors in nearby subdivisions without power.

We're expecting temps close to zero overnight tonight. It's not the cold or the snow or the frozen roads that are the panic. Without heat for 48 hours in single digit temps, water damage from burst pipes is the big worry. Gotta stay home in case you need to turn the water off. I went and dug out my main valve yesterday. It gets buried under the leaves in the planting bed. I don't think anyone is really worried about spending 48 hours bundled up under the covers, but, even if you have gas heat, you still need electricity to run the air handler to keep your house safe.

Crazy times.

[Rex G]

IIRC, it was Jane Long, the “Mother of Texas,” who wrote about Galveston Bay icing-over, one winter, thick enough for a bear to walk across the ice, from the island. Now, that was cold! (I will concede that it has been awhile since I read that, so might have confused Jane Long with another pioneering Texian. (“Texian” is not a typo.)

[revchuck38]

An unexpected consequence of having endured two strong hurricanes in six weeks is that the trees that normally would've dropped ice-covered limbs onto powerlines don't have those limbs to drop anymore. No issues with power loss where I live that I'm aware of. I'm not complaining!

[Rex G]

Our daughter is currently in Spring, TX. The house she's staying in lost power at 2:30AM and the grid provider is telling them that they will not get power back today. She's on her way to stay with friends in Sugarland. 45 miles through Houston. Fingers crossed for a safe trip.

According to some reports from Oncor (local grid provider here) about 38% of their customers were without power as of about noon today. Some of that is rolling blackouts, some of that is down and out. Lots of neighbors in nearby subdivisions without power.

We're expecting temps close to zero overnight tonight. It's not the cold or the snow or the frozen roads that are the panic. Without heat for 48 hours in single digit temps, water damage from burst pipes is the big worry. Gotta stay home in case you need to turn the water off. I went and dug out my main valve yesterday. It gets buried under the leaves in the planting bed. I don't think anyone is really worried about spending 48 hours bundled up under the covers, but, even if you have gas heat, you still need electricity to run the air handler to keep your house safe.

Crazy times.

Prayers for her safe journey. I’ll PM my phone number, in case she runs into a problem along the way.

[RoyGBiv]

Prayers for her safe journey. I’ll PM my phone number, in case she runs into a problem along the way.

Sincerely appreciated!

Just got a text that she arrived safely. Said the highway was mostly in good condition with people driving reasonably for the most part, but that surface streets were not very good.

[SeriousStudent]

I see what you did there.

I'm a bad companion, and an even worse influence.

[Rex G]

Double-tap deleted..

[Rex G]

Sincerely appreciated!

Just got a text that she arrived safely. Said the highway was mostly in good condition with people driving reasonably for the most part, but that surface streets were not very good.

Glad that she arrived!

[JclInAtx]

Herei n Austin we lost power Thursday night through Friday afternoonwith the ice storm. Thankfully it has been on since for us but there are lots of outages. This morning I checked the Austin energy outage map and it showed 64% of customers were without power from the additional ice and snow we got overnight. Maybe 5-6 inches of snow, more than we've gotten the last 15 years combined.

Right now most worried about freezing pipes. Covered all the outside spigots and checked the insulation of the pipes I can reach. Problem is the hot water tank is in a closet in an unheated garage and supply line is in the outside wall. Now dripping the indoor faucets that are fed through exterior walls. Before the snow fell I checked the main shutoff to make sure it turned and then covered it. so at least I can limit the damage if I do get a burst pipe.

Austin isd cancelled all classes including virtual until Friday.

Single digit temps tonight and more mixed precipitation coming Tuesday into Wednesday. With no thaw in between could spell more trouble.

Had fun sledding today and the dog had a blast in the snow. Just wish it didn't come with ice, single digit temps and power outages.

[gringop]

Power has been out since 2 am. Ive been up since 2:30. Genset is running my gas heater, some lights and the computer, .Also have 3 drop lights and styrofoam boxes to keep the outside faucets from freezing. but I have 4 outside faucets. Looked around and found a unused Goldenrod gunsafe heater and now all the faucets are nice and warm.

Time to go fill the genset tank and try to get a few hours sleep.

Gringop