Photos Show How Badly Texas Was Hit by the February 2021 Freeze

Facebook ↗WhatsApp ↗
0 0 Edit this post

Originally published 2021-02-23.

Photos Show How Badly Texas Was Hit by the February 2021 Freeze

In mid-February 2021, a run of winter storms pushed Arctic air deep into Texas, a state whose homes, pipes and power plants are built mainly for heat. Temperatures in Dallas–Fort Worth fell to −2 °F (−19 °C) on 16 February, the coldest reading there in more than 70 years. At the peak, more than five million people were without electricity, and roughly 11 million lost power at some point. Water systems failed as pipes burst and treatment plants lost power, leaving about 12 million people under boil-water notices.

The human cost was far higher than the first reports suggested. Early counts spoke of a few dozen deaths. The state's final figure, published at the end of 2021, was 246 people across 77 counties, most of them from hypothermia. Among them was an 11-year-old boy who died in his family's mobile home after the heating went off.

The posts below, shared by Texans during that week, show what the numbers looked like from the inside: icy highways, frozen fish tanks, garages flooded by burst water lines and families measuring the ice on their pools. Some posts have since been deleted, and we note those where they appear. Under each one we explain where it was taken, when, and what it says about the storm.

What happened during the February 2021 freeze

The cold came in waves between about 10 and 27 February, with Winter Storm Uri doing the most damage from 13 to 17 February. As demand for heating soared, power plants across the state began to fail. Natural gas wells, pipelines and compressor stations froze, and some lost the very electricity they needed to keep gas flowing. Coal, nuclear and wind generation also dropped, but the fall in gas supply was by far the largest single factor.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which runs most of the state's grid, ordered rolling blackouts to stop the whole system from collapsing. ERCOT later said the grid had come within four minutes and 37 seconds of a total failure that could have left Texans without power for weeks.

Snow and ice on Texas roads

KHOU meteorologist Daniel Gotera shared this scene from Houston on 15 February, the morning the worst of the storm reached the city. Snow is rare in Houston, and the city has few snowploughs or gritters, so even a thin layer of ice brought traffic to a standstill.

The Texas Department of Transportation's Austin office posted this warning on 16 February after people were seen walking along an icy highway. Stranded drivers sometimes left their cars on foot, which put them at risk from vehicles sliding out of control on the ice.

Dallas magazine Central Track joked that "the slopes are open" in West Dallas on 18 February. With schools and offices closed and roads too dangerous to drive, some residents made the best of the snow by sledding down local hills.

Homes without heat or power

A Texas resident posted his indoor thermostat reading on 16 February, admitting that, as a Texan, he was not built for this. Many homes in the state have little insulation and rely on electric heating, so indoor temperatures fell quickly once the power went off.

A message forwarded to the account SixBrownChicks on 17 February showed the hallway of a Dallas apartment building with no power and no heat. Apartment residents were often among the hardest hit, because they had no fireplace or generator to fall back on.

Kevin S. Gillespie shared a picture of his mother's home on 15 February, as outages spread across the state. For many families, checking on older relatives became urgent: older people were heavily represented among those who died of hypothermia.

Burst pipes, frozen taps and flooded garages

ABC13 Houston meteorologist Travis Herzog posted this from the parking garage of the Mosaic apartment tower in downtown Dallas on 18 February, where burst water lines had sent icicles and water onto parked cars. As temperatures rose, thousands of pipes that had frozen solid split open and flooded buildings.

A Houston renter shared a faucet frozen mid-drip on 17 February. Officials had urged people to leave taps dripping to stop pipes from freezing, but in many homes the cold won anyway.

Another post from 16 February showed ice in a toilet bowl, a sign of just how cold some homes had become. With water mains failing, many families also melted snow or stored water in bathtubs so they could flush toilets.

It’s so cold in Texas homes that fish tanks are frozen. pic.twitter.com/IRuDjpG5Af

— Cleavon MD (@Cleavon_MD) February 18, 2021

(This post is no longer available on X.)

A doctor who posts as Cleavon MD shared a photo of a frozen home fish tank on 18 February. The original post has since been removed, but it captured how even the inside of a living room could fall below freezing.

Water stored in the bathtub froze solid last night. That's how it's going in Dallas. pic.twitter.com/cJdUMDT6pN

— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) February 16, 2021

(This post is no longer available on X.)

Brandon Friedman reported that water saved in his Dallas bathtub had frozen solid overnight on 16 February. That post is no longer available either. Storing water in the tub was common advice before the storm, in case the supply was cut.

Pools, gardens and backyards turned to ice

One of the most shared images of the week: a Dallas father standing on his frozen swimming pool on 17 February and measuring the thickness of the ice with a tape measure. Please do not try this at home; ice on a pool can crack without warning.

A hot tub frozen over on 15 February. Outdoor pools and spas often have pumps and pipes that crack when water inside them freezes, and many Texans faced repair bills after the thaw.

My plants in Bell County, Texas 😭

Our sidewalk and driveway are glare ice. Hope everyone is staying h o m e#TexasWeather pic.twitter.com/N7hQAAauqn

— Camille Crutcher (@camillemaaae) February 11, 2021

(This post is no longer available on X.)

Camille Crutcher shared photos of frosted plants and icy paths in Bell County, central Texas, on 11 February, days before the worst of the cold. Her post has since been deleted. Farmers and gardeners took heavy losses: agricultural damage across the state was estimated at more than $600 million.

A snowy, frozen scene shared on 16 February with the hashtags people used that week to follow the storm. Social media became a key source of local news when TV and internet service was patchy.

Humour, frustration and politics online

The same Texas resident who posted the thermostat photo called this "winter apocalypse vibes" on 16 February. Dark humour was a common way of coping as the outages dragged on for days.

This 18 February post tagged former Texas governor and US energy secretary Rick Perry. That week Perry was widely quoted as saying Texans would accept longer blackouts to keep the federal government out of their grid, a remark that drew anger online. Texas runs most of its power network separately from neighbouring states, which limited how much electricity it could import during the crisis.

No one
Texas right now. #TexasFreeze #TexasWeather #Snowmageddon2021 pic.twitter.com/5t588Is5PS

— #bitcoin$53,674 (@peter52303863) February 15, 2021

(This post is no longer available on X.)

A meme-style "Texas right now" post from 15 February, now deleted, used the hashtags #TexasFreeze and #Snowmageddon2021.

Here is the fun from this morning 🐾 ❄️ Not too cold for Trip 🐾🐾😂☕️☕️❄️🙌🙌🌲 #winterstorm2021 #texaswinterstorm #TexasWeather #texassnow #TexasBlackout #texas #sanantoniosnow2021 #sanantoniotx #sanantonio #StayHome pic.twitter.com/KEBV2EwuPP

— Laura Dougan (@LauraDougan210) February 15, 2021

(This post is no longer available on X.)

Not everyone was miserable. Laura Dougan in San Antonio shared her dog Trip enjoying the snow on 15 February. Her post has since been removed. Pet owners were urged to bring animals indoors as temperatures dropped.

Why the Texas grid failed and what changed afterwards

Investigations after the storm pointed to several causes:

  • Little winterisation. Much of the state's gas infrastructure and many power plants were not protected against extreme cold. Similar warnings had been made after cold snaps in 1989 and 2011, but they were not enforced.
  • Linked gas and power systems. When blackouts cut power to gas facilities, less gas reached power plants, which led to more blackouts.
  • An isolated grid. Because the ERCOT grid has few links to the rest of the US, Texas could not import much power from neighbouring states.

Wholesale electricity prices were held at the market cap of $9,000 per megawatt-hour for days, compared with a normal price of around $25 to $50. Some customers on variable-rate plans received bills of several thousand dollars. Total damage was estimated at at least $26.5 billion.

In June 2021 the Texas Legislature passed laws reshaping the ERCOT board and requiring some gas and power facilities to weatherise. Critics said the gas requirements only covered facilities labelled "critical" and left gaps.

Was climate change to blame?

At the time, some scientists argued that a warming Arctic had weakened the polar jet stream, letting frigid air spill further south. Canadian climate researcher Paul Beckwith called the Texas event "a rock-solid case," while adding that research would take time to catch up.

The wider scientific picture is less settled. Some studies link disruptions of the polar vortex to severe cold outbreaks in North America and Asia, including the February 2021 cold wave. Others find that cold waves in the northern mid-latitudes have become less frequent since the 1980s, and that sea-ice loss has only a small effect on the jet stream. What is clear is that the damage in Texas came less from the weather itself than from infrastructure that was not prepared for it.

If you live somewhere that rarely freezes

  • Insulate exposed pipes and know where your water shut-off valve is.
  • Never run generators, grills or car engines indoors or in a garage: at least 19 deaths in Texas were from carbon monoxide poisoning.
  • Keep blankets, water, a torch and a battery radio ready, and check on older neighbours.

Sources: Photos and posts by the X (Twitter) users credited above. Wikipedia: 2021 Texas power crisis; Texas Tribune: final death toll of 246; Wikipedia: Polar vortex (climate debate); Beckwith quote via AFP/CNA. Collection first compiled by I Heart Intelligence.

Labels:

Facebook ↗WhatsApp ↗

COMMENTS

BLOGGER