Crazy Texas cold snap ?

[cardude01]

Someone sent me this pic in Kemah, near Galveston Texas. Not normal. Looks like one of Murray’s Canadian boating pics.

Have y’all seen any other pics from the southern cold snap?

 

[slowgoesit]

Yikes! Some serious chipping needed there. . .

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

Wow. So at 20f there are power outage in Texas?

What will happen when they plug in all those electric cars?? [emoji848]

 

[Benthic2]

Wow. So at 20f there are power outage in Texas?

What will happen when they plug in all those electric cars?? [emoji848]

The Texas power grid failed because Texas wanted to be seperate from the National Power Grid. Because of this their system was built to less stringent standards and without the robustness to operate in the cold weather. Notice that all the power generation facilities in El Paso are functioning fine. El Paso is not on the Texas grid, but is on the US Grid.

Texas wanted to be free from Federal regulations and they are now reaping what was sown.

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

The Texas power grid failed because Texas wanted to be seperate from the National Power Grid. Because of this their system was built to less stringent standards and without the robustness to operate in the cold weather. Notice that all the power generation facilities in El Paso are functioning fine. El Paso is not on the Texas grid, but is on the US Grid.

Texas wanted to be free from Federal regulations and they are now reaping what was sown.

Well I worked in the electrical transmission business. I would disagree that Texas is free from government regulations.

They are required to follow the Department of Energy, FERC and NERC federal standards.

BTW only 10% of Texas are on wind, which seems to not be doing too well.

 

[cardude01]

Damn. It’s about to get political already. [emoji30]

Any interesting cold snap pictures? Anyone?

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

Damn. It’s about to get political already. [emoji30]

Any interesting cold snap pictures? Anyone?

No no no.. no politics here.

 

[Swa]

Solar panels covered in snow and Ice + 15%

 

[Pete Meisinger]

Just like in the midwest and the north, this ice will melt off. Can you imagine the damage or injury a 20 pound of ice falling from the top of a mast will cause?

pete

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
It IS cold. NO idea of the veracity of these pictures:


https://9gag.com/gag/aV7DNo8

 

[Yahoo 1]

From a friend in Austin 45 minutes ago.

 

[Swa]

Its Global freezing right? Oh wait- that was in the 70's. Its global warming now. Uhhh no its climate change. So its so warm its freezing right? I forget.

 

[BobH]

Saw the same picture on FB, poster admitted it was NOT Kemah, TX.

 

[phillippeterson]

Its Global freezing right? Oh wait- that was in the 70's. Its global warming now. Uhhh no its climate change. So its so warm its freezing right? I forget.

Global warming doesn't just mean the temperature goes up. It means there is more energy being added to the system. That extra energy often shows up as a simple increase in temperature. It also manifests as more movement. In the case of the cold weather moving further south than normal there was extra energy to move the air further south.

I expect more forehead banging as a display of "no, I'm not gonna, you can't make me." And, no, the voting machines were not made in Venezuela.

 

[jleonard]

All I know is that the A/C unit on my RV trailer has not shut off all day here in Punta Gorda. The sun is just setting behind the tree line so relief is at hand.
Best of luck you guys in the newly frozen tundra.

 

[cardude01]

Saw the same picture on FB, poster admitted it was NOT Kemah, TX.

Oh crap. Sorry I posted it. My wife sent it to me and I didn’t verify it obviously. ?

 

[Choices]

Texas is one of three grids in the US. It does connect on the East side, but only nominally.

You can not excuse the sequence of errors that started last Sunday. You can not imagine the cold. Saturday it was mid 70s, trees and plants blooming.

The cold was manageable, with power. My house went from 73 to 45 in half a day. Low temp was 8.

Only reason it stopped at 45 was the gas oven going full blast.

Thirty hours later we had power. I slept in the car in my ski clothes Monday night. After we had power it took eight hours for the house to reach 70, and another day before the pipes dethawed.

Boat came through great, never lost power, had a big heater in engine room, but could not get there for a few days.

Worked in Alaska in winter, but we had power.

 

[MurrayM]

Yikes...feel bad for you guys!

I love winter, but our houses and infrastructure are designed for it.

Canadian meteorologists explanation is...the Arctic is warmer so has set the jet stream into having larger oscillations. This is what pulls warm air north or cold air south. They made the point that counterintuitively, a warming Arctic means winter cold snaps can reach further south.

This last event brought air from Siberia that normally would have stayed north, well down the North American continent and the jet stream stayed in place for a long time.

It is a small planet. We have had smokey air and red sunsets/sunrises because of fires in Siberia here on BC's north coast.

Our cold snap has ended and it's been hovering just below freezing for days. Weird.

 

[RT Firefly]

 

[Retired. Crabber]

ha I love it when the south gets cold maybe they won’t ship half the parts you need now like Alaska. It really brings it home beating ice as a drop out of school kid on board the F/V Tuxedni in the bearing sea my first real experience with ice That was when it was a wards family boat before trident owned her. . My dad was right should have stayed in school it will melt don’t mar the boat. Please stay safe and check on folks.

 

[Benthic2]

......They are required to follow the Department of Energy, FERC and NERC federal standards.....

"Texas, which has a grid largely disconnected from others to avoid federal regulation, may have to rethink the go-it-alone strategy"

Source: https://www.csmonitor.com/Environme...-t-Texas-power-grid-prepared-for-cold-weather

Half the country manages to survive single digit temperatures and still produce electricity. Texas had the same problem in 2011 and not much has changed. For the Natural Gas capital of the country to not be able to get Natural Gas to its power plants is ridiculous!!

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

"Texas, which has a grid largely disconnected from others to avoid federal regulation, may have to rethink the go-it-alone strategy"

Source: https://www.csmonitor.com/Environme...-t-Texas-power-grid-prepared-for-cold-weather

Half the country manages to survive single digit temperatures and still produce electricity. Texas had the same problem in 2011 and not much has changed. For the Natural Gas capital of the country to not be able to get Natural Gas to its power plants is ridiculous!!

I agree Texas has its own grid. But they ARE regulated by the Feds as other electrical grids in the U.S.

 

[HeadMistress]

In case anyone might be interested...Here in AR we've had 5 days of temps between 3f and mid 20s along with 3 days of snow that's put 10-12" on the ground. But unlike TX, we haven't lost power or water, so we still have heat and the only people who've lost water didn't know to keep it dripping to prevent their pipes from freezing.


I haven't left my house in a week, but my freezer, pantry and wine fridge are still well stocked and I still have plenty of firewood.. and temps are starting to rise...it's predicted to be in the 40s on Saturday.


Just thought I'd mention it...


--Peggie

 

[Olebird]

Not true! Texas' standalone grid "complies" with some

federal standard pracitices, but is not required to by regulation. By state design no power flows across state lines too or from the texas grid and therefore not subject to interstate commerce regulation.

 

[Peter B]

Someone sent me this pic in Kemah, near Galveston Texas. Not normal. Looks like one of Murray’s Canadian boating pics. View attachment 114547

Have y’all seen any other pics from the southern cold snap?

That's ridicularse...

Latitude Galveston = 29.295351° N. Temp 20ºF (-7.8ºC)

Latitude Brisbane, Qld, Australia = -27.47126° N temp today (cloudy, cool, for Qld) = 31ºC (88ºF)

Latitude, Sydney = -33.86785, temp today 26C (79ºF)

 

[FF]

Frozen wind mills?

Guess they should have bought the Dutch design instead of the cheap Chi Com version.

Liveaboard? Plan on a week or two of no electric , hospitals, old folks home , police radios and dozens of others have priority over the local marina.

Fireplace , or pot burning diesel would be first choice.

If you have great non electric heat , you will be amazed at the number of marina friends that come for a visit!!!

 

[Benthic2]

The citizens of Texas are in a world of hurt right now, and I know how harsh this is going to sound, but they gambled and they lost. Now they are going to expect the rest of the country to send utility crews, food, water and supplies to bail them out because they failed to prepare for an expected event. In 1989 they had a cold snap that caused the electrical grid to falter....They decided winterization was needed but it was optional instead of mandatory, because Texas was proud of its independant heritage. In 2011 another cold snap crippled the grid and another investigation was launched. Believe it or not, they discovered that winterization meausures were needed to ensure power generation during cold spells. Again, they were optional. So here we are in 2021 and their grid is crippled by cold weather....Natural gas supply lines froze and power generating plants had to shut down....for any other industry who supplied a commodity to customers, that would be disasterous!!
But.....Texas power suppliers just raised the price of electriciy by 25,000% and profited as Texans froze. ( Prices rose from $40/megawatt to $9000/megawatt )

Lets hear it for unregulated capitalism!! Are we great yet ?

 

[cardude01]

Yep.

And to top things off, Jerry Jones was able to get richer as he took advantage of the situation to price gouge regular Texans with overpriced natural gas. I really dislike that dude.

 

[Swa]

I'm Getting an education every time I sign on this forum. Sure glad there is so many well informed experts here to guide me through any matter.

 

[FF]

"Now they are going to expect the rest of the country to send utility crews, food, water and supplies to bail them out because they failed to prepare for an expected event."

No electric utility could have a crew large enough for every local "disasters".

Utilities bailing each other out is the norm , and the workers love it as the overtime is grand.

The hassle comes when towns that used to plan for winter , tons of salt etc. don't bother anymore as a cry to the Gov will get a disaster finding , and be bailed out.

Boston comes to mind.

"Lets hear it for unregulated capitalism!! Are we great yet ?"

Any time there is a huge profit to be made it is a price signal that folks soon follow to join in the fun.

The hassle this time is power generation falls in the maw of multiple gov regulators , so it might be a decade or two to get thru the paperwork, made even harder by politicos claiming to be greener than the next , so keep changing the rules.