Snow in Texas?

On February 14th and 15th, most of the state of Texas faced a snow storm, an extremely rare occurrence for the usually very warm state. Residents prepared for the storm by stocking up on food and water, what they would normally do to prepare for a hurricane, however no one was truly prepared for the devastation that would come from this storm. 

Due to the frigid temperatures, many Texans turned on their heaters and used as much electricity as possible to keep warm. Texans are extra sensitive to cold temperatures because they do not experience harsh winters as frequently as people in the north. The high demand for electricity coupled with the cold temperatures reducing the productivity of different energy sources like wind turbines and natural gas pumps resulted in power outages across the affected areas. In addition to natural outages, Business Insider said, “The organization that manages most of Texas' grid, known as ERCOT, or the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, responded by cutting power to millions of homes in chunks, to limit the time any one household was dark.” 

Another result of the extreme temperatures was the freezing and bursting of underground pipes, frozen wells, and water treatment plants that lost electricity.  All of these issues resulted in a massive shortage of drinking water.  The water shortage persisted long after the power was restored.  In order to have water to drink, people had to find creative solutions. They were boiling tap water if they had access to it, searching stores to find bottled water, and even boiling dirty snow just to be able to drink. Hospitals were forced to move critical patients to other facilities due to the lack of running water. A boil water notice was enacted on February 17th for the city of Austin. Any areas affected by the notice were advised to boil water for two minutes before drinking, making ice, or cooking with it. The Texas Tribune provided an explanation for why the boiling order had to be put in place. “Reduced water pressure — due to pump failures and increased demand burst pipes... — is the root of the problem for many of these infrastructure problems. Reduced water pressure can lead to harmful bacteria growing in the water. Other times, power outages have prevented treatment centers from properly treating water.”

The storm also had great economic effects. According to CBS, “The Perryman Group, a Texas-based economic research firm, projected that Winter Storm Uri could end up costing a total of $195 billion on the low end and as much as $295 billion. Those figures include lost income as well as long-term reduction in economic output stemming from factories and businesses that closed during the storm.” According to these estimates, the total cost of the storm could rival that of Hurricane Harvey in a worst-case scenario. Impacts on the agricultural parts of the state were severe. Many crops freezed over due to the extremely low temperatures, which could cause problems for farmers for many seasons to come.  

This storm was truly a once-in-a-lifetime event for Texans. It was outside of the norm from other storms because of not only the temperatures, but also in the spread of the storm. In anticipation of the storm, the whole state was under a winter storm warning. Now, most of the state has been restored power and the water crisis is improving, but there will still definitely be more long-term impacts of this event.  Hopefully the state agencies will have learned valuable lessons so they will be better able to withstand this type of storm should it ever occur again.