Place Your Bets! Texas Xmas Freeze 2022!

[Muse]

Only because some jack moved the calendar. Tonight is mid-winter's eve. Winter traditionally started on Halloween and ended with Imbolc (Groundhog Day). The traditional dates make much more sense climate-wise and with respect to the solar year.

Thanks for this, I have truly been wondering about the designation of winter. Here, March 21 is generally a time that feels way more like spring than winter and it's felt like winter here for basically a month this year, last year too.

Edit: Some canny explaining here...

Why Winter Starts For Meteorologists at a Different Time Than What's on Your Calendar

The calendar may not say it's winter yet, but for meteorologists, this season begins on Dec. 1. Here's why.

www.wunderground.com

 

[Zorba]

It’s going to be bad enough. Although bad enough in this case means killing our garden which my wife and I spent a weekend weeding and replanting a few weeks ago.

Truthfully I’ll have to spend Thursday afternoon covering plants, re-insulting hose valves, draining the sprinkler system, and dragging the potted plants inside.

Is your sprinkler system not buried? I'd think just a few inches down would be more than enough in Houston. Mine in about a foot down in OKC and I never drain it, just open the bleed ports on either side of the back flow preventer.

 

[Zorba]

I thought this was interesting, the Southwest Power Pool is really counting on Wind to get us through the coldest day.

Forecast vs. Actual

Southwest Power Pool Marketplace Portal

marketplace.spp.org

 

[Captante]

Only because some jack moved the calendar. Tonight is mid-winter's eve. Winter traditionally started on Halloween and ended with Imbolc (Groundhog Day). The traditional dates make much more sense climate-wise and with respect to the solar year.

Not anymore they don't..... it doesn't get consistently "winter" cold in Connecticut anymore until late December (if ever!) and real "Spring" seems to be coming later every year too.

 

[K1052]

I do not miss worrying about this. Though I left the water meter key to the people who bought our Austin house because I am a gentleman.

 

[hal2kilo]

Winter doesn't start until 1:48PM this afternoon.

Unfortunately, I'm aware of it.

 

[Paratus]

Well ERCOT is still saying they’ll have enough generation.

Texas power grid is expected to hold during the ongoing freeze

The Texas grid should hold on during this late December freeze

www.kbtx.com

Of course the last time the issue was the power plants were tripping off

ERCOT:

 

[Paratus]

Is your sprinkler system not buried? I'd think just a few inches down would be more than enough in Houston. Mine in about a foot down in OKC and I never drain it, just open the bleed ports on either side of the back flow preventer.

They system is almost entirely buried.

It’s the relief valve that sticks out of the ground that’s the issue. You have to shut the valve off to it and open the relief valves to drain it. If you don’t and it freezes, it will crack out. When it unfreezes you end up with a water feature on the side of your house.

 

[nisryus]

Insulated my outside exposed pipes and put the hose covers on all of the outside faucets. Moved all of my plants (that are potted) into the garage.

Did my usual weekly grocery shopping at HEB and didn't see any panic buying, so thats good. It will be only a few days, so shouldn't be too bad.

I do hope that my water heater expansion tank doesn't explodes like it did during the 2021 Texas snow apocalypse....

 

[Paratus]

Insulated my outside exposed pipes and put the hose covers on all of the outside faucets. Moved all of my plants (that are potted) into the garage.

Did my usual weekly grocery shopping at HEB and didn't see any panic buying, so thats good. It will be only a few days, so shouldn't be too bad.

I do hope that my water heater expansion tank doesn't explodes like it did during the 2021 Texas snow apocalypse....

Finished up with my pipes. We covered a lot of our garden and ran incandescent Christmas lights throughout them. Basically just have to move the potted plants tomorrow.

 

[Zorba]

They system is almost entirely buried.

It’s the relief valve that sticks out of the ground that’s the issue. You have to shut the valve off to it and open the relief valves to drain it. If you don’t and it freezes, it will crack out. When it unfreezes you end up with a water feature on the side of your house.

Oh yeah, that is what I do too, shut off the main valve, open the bleeders, and cycle all the zone valves. You can get insulation bags that cover the tree that would probably keep you from ever freezing in Houston. I've had mine save me several times when I didn't winterize it soon enough.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

The electric plants and site must be properly insulated by now if they are not Texans are fucking crazy.

 

[MrSquished]

The electric plants and site must be properly insulated by now if they are not Texans a fucking crazy.

Considering how long it's taken for the dumbfuck southern states to start to build infrastructure and housing to withstand hurricanes that we have to bail them out from all the time, you never know with these red states jackasses.

 

[brycejones]

The electric plants and site must be properly insulated by now if they are not Texans are fucking crazy.

Texas just asked you to hold its beer.

 

[Muse]

Insulated my outside exposed pipes and put the hose covers on all of the outside faucets. Moved all of my plants (that are potted) into the garage.

Did my usual weekly grocery shopping at HEB and didn't see any panic buying, so thats good. It will be only a few days, so shouldn't be too bad.

I do hope that my water heater expansion tank doesn't explodes like it did during the 2021 Texas snow apocalypse....

On ABC network news last night they said this Xmas will be the coldest in some decades across the US, don't recall the exact wording. Here in the Bay Area it will actually be the warmest day in weeks.

 

[Muse]

Considering how long it's taken for the dumbfuck southern states to start to build infrastructure and housing to withstand hurricanes that we have to bail them out from all the time, you never know with these red states jackasses.

These are the people who started a war because they didn't want to give up the worst idea in American history.

 

[allisolm]

Heading for TX today. Google maps says I-10 is closed from New Orleans to Beaumont TX with no other routes available. Doesn't say why. Hope it is open by the time I get there or this long trip will be even longer.

 

[Paratus]

I have never seen this much committed & available capacity.


Not even in the summer where the record demand was around 80GW.

 

[WelshBloke]

Only because some jack moved the calendar. Tonight is mid-winter's eve. Winter traditionally started on Halloween and ended with Imbolc (Groundhog Day). The traditional dates make much more sense climate-wise and with respect to the solar year.

We absolutely should divide our calendar up, and designate the big holidays, by the equinoxes and solstices!

 

[IronWing]

We absolutely should divide our calendar up, and designate the big holidays, by the equinoxes and solstices!

Yep, having holidays on the equinoxes and solstices plus the cross quarter holidays was a much better idea than the mess we have now. Throwing out the holidays simply because we threw out the old religions was a bad move. Having a reason to party every six or seven weeks would be good. Mayday was traditionally a lot more fun.

 

[Paratus]

So checkout that temperature drop!
High of 69 low (so far ) of 29

 

[Paratus]

ERCOT is looking ok. Renewables are providing about 1/3 of the demand. (Not surprising with this wind)

 

[nisryus]

It was 58 at noon, then 37 at 2pm, 24 by 5pm, now its 9pm and is 17 outside.

 

[sdifox]

Texas Power Outage Map, October 2025

PowerOutage.us tracks, records, and aggregates power outages across Texas.

poweroutage.us

 

[iRONic]

Currently -3 here in the ‘Ville with a brisk wind dropping that temp even further.

Our snow accumulation was minimal.