Texas To Summer Construction Workers: Drop Dead

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation that 
prevents cities in Texas from mandating water
breaks for construction workers toiling in
the state's excessive heat. 

 Politics and politicians in Texas tend to be awful, to put it mildly. 

One of millions of examples came to light this week. 

Apparently, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and a majority of the state's legislature do not care if construction workers die of heat stroke. 

The rule that Abbott signed into law eliminates local ordinances that mandate 10-minute water breaks every four hours for construction workers in hot weather. 

According to the Texas Tribune:

"The law's scope is broad but ordinances that establish breaks in the workplace are one of the explicit targets. The law will nullify ordinances enacted by Austin in 2010 and Dallas in 2015 that establish 10-minute breaks every four hours so that construction workers can drink water and protect themselves from tree sun. It also prevents other cities from passing such rules in the future. San Antonio has been considering a similar ordinance."

Abbott and others justify this by saying that a hodgepodge of local laws and ordinances is a burden on businesses. Which is actually probably true. 

So instead of getting rid of the ordinances, why not establish a blanket statewide law mandating these water breaks?

I guess because the Texas "elite" regards construction workers as just cattle and machines, and who cares if some of them drop dead in the heat? Just replace 'em.  Bonus: The replacement can be paid a lower wage than the lazy bum who had gall to die on a 110 degree afternoon. 

No regard for human life here. Which is ironic given Texas Republicans' obsession with abortion bans. 

Democrats in the Texas legislature did file bills that would create a statewide rule mandating water breaks, but those filings went nowhere in the Republican controlled Texas Statehouse. 

Summertime in Texas makes a Vermont heat wave look like a lovely February ski vacation. Temperatures routinely top 100 degrees in the summer. Humidity drives heat indices into the 110s or higher. Absolutely brutal and dangerous conditions for outdoor workers. 

As Texas Tribune points out:

"Texas is the state where the most workers die from high temperatures, government data shows. At least 42 workers died in Texas between 2011 and 2021 from environmental heat exposure, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Workers' unions claim this data doesn't fully reflect the magnitude of the problem because heat-related deaths are often recorded under a different primary cause of injury."

The new rule signed by Abbott and pushed by Texas Republicans will probably cause more construction industry deaths in Texas.  

"'Construction is a deadly industry. Whatever the minimum protection is, it can save a life. We are talking about a human life,' said Ana Gonzalez, deputy director of policy and politics at the Texas AFL-CIO. 'We will see more deaths, especially in Texas' high temperatures.'" reports the Texas Tribune. 

Given that the majority of Texas construction workers are Hispanic, I also whiff some racism in this deadly new law. 

The elimination of the local water break rules doesn't take effect until September 1, but even the timing of Abbott's signature seems cruel.

He signed the bill as most of Texas is enduring record breaking high temperatures and in many places, oppressive humidity. The heat index in one south Texas town the other day was 135 degrees.

 I wonder how Texas Republicans would do laying asphalt or installing roofs during the excessive heat warnings that are now in place across much of Texas, including the big cities of Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio.

Even that 10-minute water break once every four hours seems woefully inadequate. OSHA does not have heat stress standards for workers, according to the CDC.

However, some states do. 

The CDC recommends employers ensure workers take breaks in the shade and drink plenty of water.  They should schedule hotter jobs during cooler periods of the day, or postpone such work until after a cold front has passed. Construction companies should also provide larger coolers full of chilly water in which worker can immerse their arms and such to lower their body temperature.

And, the CDC says, construction bosses should demand an employee stop work if they are showing signs of heat-related illness. 

 I'm sure a number of Texas construction companies hew to these CDC recommendations.  But I'm also sure other construction companies and other employers don't.  

Every business wants and needs to be profitable. But if the profits come at the cost of heat-related deaths, is the money worth it?

To some employers, Texas lawmakers and Abbott, the answer to that question is apparently "Yes."

 

 

Texas Power Grid Strains In Record Hot Weather, Just As It Did In Record Cold Weather

Texas residents are getting fed up with both the long lasting
heat wave they are experiencing and ERCOT, which
does a poor job managing the state's electrical grid.
ERCOT keeps telling residents to conserve electricity
due to inadequacies in the Texas grid.

 You want your electric power supply to be reliable. Especially when temperatures in the winter are below zero, so you don't freeze to death in your own home.  

You also want electric power to be reliable, when it's 110 degrees out and you don't want to die of heat stroke in your own home.

Texas can have both kinds of weather, and their power grid is not up to the challenge of either weather extremes. 

The hilariously and inaccurately named Electric Reliability Council of Texas or ERCOT begged customers to conserve power as much as possible on Monday after several days of intense heat. Intense even by Texas standards.  

For the state of Texas as a whole, Sunday was the second hottest day since at least 1950. Individual cities melted in the heat. Houston reached 105 degrees, tying the record for the hottest day in that giant city's history. That huge city also set a record for their hottest four-day stretch on record.

Somerville, Texas got up to 113 degrees Sunday. College Station was close behind at 111 degrees, its second hottest temperature on record. Austin reached 110 degrees over the weekend, tying the record for the hottest on record for the entire month of July.

The heat is expected to go on for quite awhile yet, too. Each of the next seven days in Dallas are expected to reach at least 100 degrees, except possibly on Friday, when the forecast high is a comparatively frigid 99 degrees.

Anytime you get record, long lasting heat like Texas is experiencing, you're going to run into power supply shortages. If we manage to have a near record heat wave here in Vermont later this summer, I'm sure you'll hear pleas to reduce your electricity usage during the day. (Spoiler: No big heat waves are currently in the Vermont forecast).

So you'd expect ERROR, I mean ERCOT to ask for conservation. But Texas is a special case, and I do mean that in a derogatory way, at least in terms of its energy management.

They long ago decided to create their own independent power grid, with no real links to power supplies in other areas. Here in Vermont, we're more typical of other regions of the United States. We'll get feeds of electricity from other states and/or Quebec if demand begins to outstrip supply in the Green Mountain State. 

With no way to get help from surrounding regions, Texas can only do so much in these situations. 

Traditional electric generating plants, run by gas or coal or other fossil fuels are falling short. Some are in disrepair. There's eco-friendly power sources. Solar power is doing great with the wall to wall sunshine of the Texas heat wave, but supplies are limited. Wind power is big in Texas, but under this het wave, wind is practically non-existent, so the whirlygigs aren't helping all that much. 

ERCOT warned over the weekend that if energy conservation was insufficient Monday, there would be rolling blackouts. As of late Monday afternoon, it appeared as if enough people were turning up the temperature on their air conditioning settings to barely avoid these blackouts.  Plus, a few well timed and well placed thunderstorms developed Monday afternoon over some populated areas, cooling things down a bit and reducing demand. 

Temperatures cooled ever so slightly in Texas on Wednesday, so the electricity is still flowing. They're not out of the woods yet, of course.  Through the end of the month, long range forecasts focus on Texas as being the most likely area of the United States to experience much hotter than normal temperatures. 

Even if nobody in Texas ends up with a blackout because of the heat, they're going to pay for this heat wave.  In May, before the heat really hit in earnest, average power bills in Texas had already increased by 30 percent or so in a few previous weeks. 

While virtually all the continental U.S. is expected to be
hotter than  normal through the end of the month, Texas
is the most likely place to experience much hotter
than normal conditions. 

If the current story of a weather related Texas energy emergency rings a bell, it's because you're thinking of February, 2021. It's believed 246 Texans died, and billions of dollars in damage hit Texas when the state's power grid collapsed in a record cold wave. Most of those who died succumbed to the cold or carbon monoxide poisoning from using alternative and unsafe ways to stay warm.

As always, this has gotten political. Democrat Beto O'Rourke is running against incumbent Republican Gregg Abbott. O'Rourke made sure to tweet the following:

"We can't rely on the grid when it's hot. We can't rely on the grid when it's cold. We can't rely on Greg Abbott. It's time to vote him out and fix the grid."

By the way, I wouldn't get too smug about your friendly local power grid being better than the one in Texas. Yours probably is better than that of the Lone Star State, but not immune from increasingly weird weather brought on by climate change.

Other than storms, heat waves are probably the biggest culprit than get cut your power. Cold waves can of course do it to you, too. But weather extremes are getting more, well extreme under the pressures of climate change. Just another thing we'll need to be prepared for.

It is expected to get hot up here in Vermont next week. It likely won't be record heat, and the power grid should hold up just fine. That's not to say things will work out with our power supply if the heat were more intense and long lasting. 

Even in a place with better energy management like Vermont, electricity will be one of the many important things affected by climate change. 

 

Texas Death Toll Rises From Last Winter's Freeze. Will State Repeat This Year?

It's been nearly a year since an intense cold wave struck the South and Midwest and Texas has just updated the number of people killed in that freeze.  

A frozen neighborhood in Texas last February. 
Photo from the Texas Tribune

The Texas power grid, due in large part to mismanagement, failed during the winter storms and subzero temperatures. The new death toll from that disaster is 246, according to the Texas Tribune. State officials recently added 36 deaths to the toll to arrive at that number. 

The ages of those who died ranged from a little under one year old to 102.  Nearly two thirds of those who passed died of hypothermia.  Millions of Texans spent days in frigid, dark, heatless homes during the cold wave and power outages.

It should be noted that Texas might still be seriously underestimating the number of deaths. Other sources have placed the death toll at between 700 and 800.

But no matter how you look at it - 250 dead or 750 - this was still an enormous disaster and tragedy. One that could have at least partially been avoided.  

Estimates of the damage from burst pipes and other issues from the cold and subsequent power failures, along with lost business, vary widely. But most estimates exceed $150 billion, which is more damage than in the catastrophic floods Texas suffered with Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Texas has not winterized power plants, despite decade-old warnings that such a disaster could happen.  Also, unlike in the rest of the country, Texas has a locally pro-business go it alone strategy, so that the state's power grid is independent from surrounding grids.

Elsewhere in the United States, when a particular state or region suffers a severe storm that threatens the entire power grid, these regions can "borrow" electricity from neighboring grids that are not experiencing extreme weather 

There still will be a lot of power outages in a severe storm, but this sharing means not quite as many people lose power and not for as long a period of time. 

Because of the way state finances are set up, power costs soar astronomically as cold snaps arrive. It was so extreme last February that even people who had power shut off the lights and heat so as not to go bankrupt. 

This was extreme, In one Texas household NPR looked at, the January electric bill was $257.  The February bill was around $10,000.  No, I did not accidentally type any extra zeroes.

Some of the charges were subsequently sharply negotiated downward, despite resistance from some utilities.

Warnings continue that Texas will suffer the same fate as last year if another big cold snap arrives.

After a week of record high temperatures, winter finally did arrive in Texas over the New Year's holiday.  There were no real power consequences, as that cold snap was brief and not nearly as intense as the one last February. Since New Years Day, Texas has had bouts with relatively cold winter weather, but certainly nothing in the extreme category.  

Back to back winters with the intense cold experienced in February 2021 are unlikely in Texas, but weather extremes have gotten more common with climate change, so nothing is off the table. 

Texas Flood Tragedy News Keeps Getting Worse, Dozens Dead, Many Missing; And How It Happened

Aftermath of the Texas flood. At last report at least
27 people had been confirmed dead, and that toll
was expected to rise

 I don't even know where to begin to start with the immense flood tragedy in the Hill Country of Texas, northwest of San Antonio. 

As I wrote this early Saturday afternoon, CBS was reporting 27 deaths so far - 18 adults and nine children. 

A lot of people are still missing -- officials haven't yet told us how many. We know about a dozen people, mostly children are missing from a Camp Mystic, a childrens' camp along the Guadalupe River.

If you try really hard you get glean some good news out of the tragedy. As of Saturday morning, around 850 people had been rescued. There have been 160 air rescues, and as of this writing, swarms of aircraft, drones and boats were looking for more people. 

There have been some amazing tales of survival. KENS in San Antonio reported one woman had been swept 20 miles downstream and over four dams before being rescued from a cypress tree today. The woman reportedly had just minor injuries. 

While I'm sure there will be other tales of survival, I'm dreading what the final death toll might look like. Not to mention the extreme damage to homes and businesses through a big part of central Texas. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Texas tragedy had its roots in Tropical Storm Barry, a completely forgettable, weak tropical storm that splashed ashore in northeastern Mexico last Sunday. 

Barry drew extremely humid air into Texas - extraordinarily steamy even by Texas standards. A small drifting low pressure system over central Texas drew in and consolidated that moisture.  This is Texas Hill country, so the winds were forced to rise upward as ti traveled from the Gulf of Mexico to the   rising elevations west of San Antonio, helping to unleash the floods.

This upslope flow has happened there frequently and has often caused floods,  Enough to this area of Texas is sometimes known as flash flood alley. 

The upslope flow, the remnants of Barry, the subtle low pressure system, the extreme humidity all converged over the Guadalupe River drainage basin and its surroundings. And just sat there. The result was extreme rainfall. 

The fact that a crucial ingredient to this tragedy was a former tropical storm shows that people are not necessarily safe after a tropical storm or hurricane makes landfall.  These things can produce floods far from the where the system came ashore. 

Even here in Vermont. The remnants of Hurricane Beryl were a key ingredient of the extreme floods last  July 10-11 in the Green Mountain State.  

Back in 1995, another fairly lame tropical storm named Dean came ashore in Texas, much like Beryl did. Even though Dean was weak, its remnants interacted with a stalled weather front to produce severe flooding across northern and central Vermont - nearly 2,000 miles from where it made landfall. 

We also have to remind ourselves that climate change has made downpours and storms often more intense than they otherwise would have been decades ago. I do not know to what extent climate change influenced this flood, but I suspect it was at least a small factor. 

THE FLOOD FORECAST AND NOAA CUTBACKS

Some officials in Texas are blaming cutbacks at NOAA and the National Weather Service because of the Trump administration and is DOGE federal worker slash and burn program earlier this year.  Their claim is the forecast underplayed the amount of rain that ultimately fell. 

Those DOGE cutbacks might well cause forecasting errors and in fact might have already done so in other circumstances.  

As Texas meteorologist Matt Lanza explains in his blog The Eyewall, the flash flood was well forecasted, even if the amount of rain that actually fell was unimaginable. 

National Weather Service Forecasts on Thursday gave the region a slight risk of flash flooding, which might have created a false sense of security. Lanza said some high resolution forecast models predicted the huge amounts of rain that in fact materialized.  In hindsight (my opinion here) those models should have perhaps been taken more seriously. But hindsight is of course 20/20.

In any event, the National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings shortly before midnight Thursday as the rains began to fall in earnest. In the early morning hours, the NWS declared issued flash flood emergencies, which triggers automatic warnings on everybody's cell phones.

Lanza said the NOAA budget cutbacks did not appear to play a role in this tragedy. Much has been made of cutbacks in weather balloon launches, which offer critical information on impeding storms. The National Weather Service office in Del Rio, Texas, and data from those launches helped prompt the NWS issue those dire "hair on fire" flash flood warnings. 

Then the question was, how were those flash flood warnings received? Or were they?

A blame game has already started. 

Per the Associated Press: 

'AccuWeather, a private weather forecasting business said it also issued flash flood warnings and blamed camp directors for the tragedy. "These warmings should have provided officials with ample time to evacuate camps such as Camp Mystic and get people to safety,' "

As noted, this part of Texas is particularly prone to flash flooding. Lanza asks a great question: "Do we need to start thinking of every risk of flooding as a potential high-end event we should pre-evacuate the highest risk people (like children and elderly in floodways) for? Is that even practical?"

Some variation of that question is a great one to ask anywhere in the U.S., including here in Vermont. Climate change is helping make downpours more intense, and more likely to cause floods, or make floods worse than they otherwise would be.  

FLASH FLOODS DANGEROUS

We do know that flash floods are extremely dangerous, and the United State has a long history of flash flood tragedies.  

Perhaps the most famous and deadly flash flood in U.S. history was the Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood of 1889, which killed more than 2,200 people. Johnstown was hit again in 1977 in a flash flood that killed 84 people. 

Other examples of horrible flash floods include one that hit Rapid City, South Dakota and adjacent areas of the Black Hills in 1972, resulting in 238 lives lost. A flash flood in Big Thompson Canyon, Colorado in 1976 claimed 144 lives. 

Flash flooding in Kentucky killed 45 people in 2022.  Another flash flood in San Antonio on June 12 killed 13 people. 

Additional flash flooding has hit parts of central Texas today. As of early this afternoon a new flash flood emergency was in effect for Burnet County, Texas and parts of Williamson and Travis County. Six to 14 inches of rain fell there last night and this morning. 

This includes parts of the Austin metropolitan area,   The latest update is two people are dead and 10 are missing from this new round of flooding. 

It goes on and on. 

 

Why The Nation's Winter Weather Went Off Rails And Texas Sank Under It

Interstate 35 in Austin, Texas took on a frozen post-
apocalyptic look this week. Photo by Miguel
Gutierrez Jr/Texas Tribune 

The United States certainly went through one hell of a week in the weather department, with extreme, deadly weather that will be remembered for generations to come. 

This incredible weather will wane and things are slowly starting to go back to something resembling normal, but the damage is done. 

The death toll is rising, and there will probably be billions of dollars in damage from coast to coast. 

As of Wednesday, the nationwide death toll from the Arctic weather had risen to at least 30, and that will surely go up, possibly a lot, as people are found in frozen homes and apartments. By some estimates, this will be the most expensive weather disaster in Texas history, costing even more than the $20 billion in inflation-adjusted damage from Hurricane Harvey in 2017. 

Now that the weather is finally getting ready to slowly improve, here's how this all happened in the first place:    

THE METEOROLOGY

This episode of awful weather had it seeds in what I described in this blog thingy a month ago. A sudden stratospheric warming.

Way back on January 9, I described how this sudden stratospheric warming would blow the polar vortex apart. The vortex is a huge upper level pool of frigid, stormy air that usually hangs out somewhere in the Arctic. It does tend to move around somewhat. 

Or, as noted get blown apart occasionally.

We're reaping that harvest, as it were, of that event now. 

This disrupted polar vortex led to something called high latitude blocking, which is basically high pressure areas setting up around the Arctic. Pieces of the polar vortex, which is low pressure, were displaced further south 

As the Washington Post Capital Weather Gang explains it, this high pressure in the high Arctic helped displace the polar vortex into the North Atlantic. The low pressure in the North Atlantic and high pressure near Alaska channeled incredibly bitter air from Siberia, across the North Pole and straight down into Canada and the United States.

The jet stream also became weaker than it normally is this time of year. A strong jet stream tends to keep most of the cold air bottled up in Canada.

A weaker jet stream has much more pronounced curves, dips and bumps.   A big dip in this weak jet stream developed over the central United States, and that directed that awful Siberian air right down to Texas. 

Outbreaks of Arctic air usually get shunted east, at least to an extent, so that the Great Lakes and Northeast shiver in temperatures way below zero.  That's sort of OK, we're used to it. 

This time, with that big dip in the jet stream, the frigid air shot straight to Oklahoma and Texas, with little chance to modify on the way down. 

CLIMATE CHANGE?

I've seen a few wags online saying a record, intense cold wave like his is "proof" climate change does not exist. 

As I always state, a single weather event does nothing to prove or disprove climate change. 

The weather always has extremes, one way or the other.  Climate change has loaded the dice, so it's now likely there will be hot spells than cold spells.  But there will still be cold spells. 

Actually, the air temperature at its source in Siberia and the Arctic wasn't unusual. What was strange is that it made its way all the way down to the Mexican border, resulting in the extreme cold for the South. 

I've mentioned this before, but some scientists suspect that climate change can actually make these kinds of episodes more likely. 

The Arctic is warming faster than points south, so that reduces the temperature contrast between the tropics and the poles.  A subdued temperature contrast might make a weaker jet stream.  Remember what I said above: A weaker jet stream can be more prone to bigger dips and ridges. That in turn, can pull cold air south where it doesn't belong and hot air north, where it also doesn't belong. 

In fact, this is the second time in four months this has happened in the southern Plains. An out of season ice storm caused a lot of problems in Oklahoma back in October. 

But as Nature reported last November, the science around climate change and weaker jet streams and weird spells of weather is still very iffy. 

Scientists have a lot more work to do to establish whether these mega cold snaps amid an otherwise warming climate is a real thing or not.   

THE ICE

While that polar vortex in the North Atlantic was helping direct frigid air into the United States, a stronger than average ridge of swarm, tropical high pressure in the upper atmosphere established itself off the Southeast United States coast, and north of the Caribbean.

This directed -  or tried to direct  - warm, humid air toward the southeastern United States. Note that while most of the nation was freezing, Florida was enduring near record winter time heat and humidity. 

Warm air is lighter than cold air. When this toasty, humid air encountered the frigid air over much of the United States, it would ride up and over the cold air.  And there were plenty of episodes in the past week where this happened, and is still happening. 

Raindrops falling from the warm air encounter the cold air near the surface. They either freeze on the way down, creating sleet, or freeze on contact with the ground, causing the dangerous and damaging icing we've seen so much of. 

TEXAS POWER OUTAGES 

Politics over the widespread and dangerous Texas power outages as exploded. 

The outages, which affected more than 4 million Texans, is the most serious and probably most deadly outcome of this cold snap.  

Electrical grids froze up all over Texas, leading 
to massive days-long blackouts 

Texas is used to  heat waves, but cold waves of this intensity and length are super rare.  The whole state was affected, not just part of it as is typical in most winter cold snaps. 

This has probably happened maybe four or five times in the past 200 years or so. 

Demand for power spiked as people struggle to heat their homes. 

If you figure a comfortable temperature for a house is 70 degrees, you only have to cool the rooms by 30 degrees if its hot outside in the summer 

In this cold wave you have to heat the rooms by 70 degrees if it's zero outside so that takes a lot of energy. Plus, the millions of homes and businesses in Texas are designed to be insulated from New England-style winter conditions. 

The gas and coal plants weren't up to the task. Plus, these plants were not built to withstand such bitter temperatures. Gas lines froze, as did equipment in power plants. 

Most of the nation's power is controlled by two massive grids, one in the eastern half of the nation, one in the west. 

Since each power grid encompasses several states, they are subject to federal regulations that, among other things, demand that the plants are weatherized. Also, since the east and west grids are so big, they can be some electricity trading with other states if one area is affected by bad weather and another is not. 

Texas, however, controls its own power grid, controlled by the now-unfortunately named Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT.  

The Texas power grid is not part of the eastern and western regions. They've done this in part to avoid dealing with cumbersome federal regulations. The state didn't winterize their power plants, because cold waves like this are so rare. 

When the weather hit, the plants wilted in the Arctic chill. Compounding the problem, some electricity generating plants shut down in Texas during the winter for maintenance. That's because electricity demand in the Lone Star State is usually highest in the summer. 

I've seen some blame go to wind and solar power that froze up in the cold. But these renewables only contribute 21 percent of Texas electricity generation.  

Some wind turbines did freeze up, but most of them kept working. Though power from windmills did decrease during the winter storm, that decrease from renewables was actually a little less than forecast.  Most of the problem was from gas and coal electric generating plants. 

By the weekend, temperatures in Texas will rise to levels near or even a little above average for the season - well above freezing. The power will come back on for everybody.  All those frozen pipes will thaw, causing countless new building floods, drinking water shortages and danger. 

It will take many areas of the nation awhile to recover from this disaster. That's especially true in Texas. 

This Is One Of The Most Expensive Storm Years In Texas. They Were Just Hit Again

 Texas just can't catch a break.

The Texas storms roll on. Yellow areas should expect
some severe storms Thursday. Dark green areas have 
a limited but still real chance of rough weather. 

Another complex of intense storms ripped through parts of the state Monday and Tuesday, causing a new round of extensive damage, flooding and power outages.  

At least one person was killed in the latest round of storms, and several injured. 

More than a million homes and businesses were without power, mostly in and near the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area on Tuesday. It could take days for power to be fully restored, reports the Associated Press.  

The Dallas-Fort Worth metro area were hit be two waves of intense storms, one late Monday afternoon, and a second a little before dawn Tuesday. 

Winds gusted to 77 mph at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.  Video on social media showed the wind shoving an American Airlines plane away from a gate.  Denton, Texas, damaged by a tornado on Saturday, endured a gust to 83 mph. 

The latest round of bad weather probably adds more than $1 billion in damages to the several billions of dollars in damage suffered in Texas spring floods.

This month started with record flooding in east Texas that forced thousands from their homes. 

Then, Houston and environs suffered an extreme thunderstorm with hurricane force winds and embedded tornadoes on May 16.

That storm caused widespread destruction and power outages, destroyed homes and blew hundreds or even thousands of windows out of downtown Houston skyscrapers. 

After that, deadly tornadoes swept through areas north of Dallas, killing seven people, injuring dozens and destroying hundreds of homes and businesses. 

On Tuesday, another round of high winds and flooding hit Houston and surrounding areas, adding to the damage from May 16 and taking down electrical power that had just been restored to many homes. 

All this is happening as most of Texas is dealing with an early bout of hot weather.  Six days this month are among Houston's top 20 hottest May days. Some Texas cities have hit all time highs for May, or all time warmest overnight lows for May. 

That makes things especially rough when the power, and thus air conditioning, aren't working. 

With two major storms hitting both sprawling metropolitan areas of Houston and Dallas, plus added tornado and hail damage elsewhere in the state, the cost of these disasters will surely cost many billions of dollars in damage. 

That's on a scale of a major hurricane. Speaking of which, the entire 367-mile Texas coast is highly vulnerable to hurricanes. Forecasters say this hurricane season will be especially busy, increasing the odds of a Texas landfall. 

In the short term, Texas is not quite done with the rough weather. Large parts of Texas are expected to see storms with high winds and giant hail today, Thursday and Friday. 

Beryl Targeting Texas Next. And It Could Cause Trouble/Worry Here In Vermont, Believe It Or Not

Beryl has regrouped and organized into a nice 
symmetrical system again, which means it has 
an opportunity to strengthen before hitting
the Texas coast tonight or early Monday. Believe
it or not this storm could have an effect 
on us here in Vermont. 

 Having trashed a number of islands in the Caribbean, and part of Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, former and soon to be hurricane Beryl is now regrouping for another potentially lethal strike. 

It's now getting its act together again over the western Gulf of Mexico so that it can next slap the coastline of Texas with hurricane conditions.  Even then, it probably won't be done. 

Eventually, what will become the remnants of Beryl could cause trouble in parts of the Midwest and Northeast, including here in Vermont.

More on that in a little bit. First things first. 

Beryl crossed the Yucatan Peninsula Friday. Hurricanes that go over land almost always weaken quickly, and Beryl was no exception.

 It limped back into the Gulf of Mexico northwest of that peninsula Friday night as a disorganized mess of a 60 mph tropical storm. 

Beryl spent Saturday trying to pump out new bursts of thunderstorms to re-form, but dry air getting sucked into the system, and fairly strong winds aloft interfered. This was expected, and Beryl stayed as a rather troubled little tropical storm.

Until now. 

WHAT BERYL'S DOING

The upper level winds are calming down quite a lot, and Beryl is finishing up the process of coughing out the dry air that got mixed in with it. 

As of late this morning, it had just started to re-strengthen, with top winds near 65 mph as of 11 a.m. today. 

Beryl looks much better organized in satellite pictures than it did yesterday, and it should regain hurricane status later today or this evening. 

This is going to be another in a series of hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast anywhere between Texas and Florida in recent years that kept getting stronger right up until the moment it hit land. 

That's always the most dangerous scenario. For one, it takes people by surprise. They hear the hurricane has, say, 80 mph while it is off the coast, so people assume that's what they'll get. Then they end up surprised and unprepared when winds and storm surges at landfall are worse than that. 

TEXAS PREP

The warnings the folks on the Texas coast keep emphasizing Beryl will be at its strongest at landfall, so be prepared. 

Texas is lucky that there's not much space between where it is now and where it is forecast to hit Texas, probably somewhere in the middle of the Texas coast.  Even though it might start to strengthen quickly, it won't have much time to do so between now and when it hits land late tonight or very tomorrow.

Still, sustained winds with this thing should be close to 90 mph at landfall, and it could surprise by becoming even stronger, After all, Beryl has a history of surprises, being by far the earliest major hurricane and earliest Category 5 on record in the Atlantic.

Though Beryl broke all kinds of early season records, a July hurricane is not unheard of in Texas. It'll be the 10th July hurricane in Texas since 1851, said hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.

Texas officials have urged tourists along the coast to skedaddle by this afternoon. The outer bands of Beryl were already bringing fitful downpours and gusty winds to the coast by noon today. People in the hurricane zone should be in shelter by nightfall.

Storm surges could reach four to six feet near and just to the northeast of where Beryl makes landfall. That's a concern considering how flat the Texas coastal plain is.  Tornadoes are possible. Meteorologists expect rainfall near the path of Beryl to pile up to between five and 10 inches, with local amounts up to 15 inches.

That, of course is a real recipe for flooding. That flooding will be dangerous, for sure. But luckily not the ultimate worst case scenario.. 

Although Beryl's path is similar to catastrophic Hurricane Harvey in 2017, this won't be another Harvey. Harvey was much stronger and bigger than Beryl. Also, steering winds in the atmosphere collapsed. So Harvey just sat over southeastern Texas for days, dumping feet of rain and causing one of the worst floods in U.S. history. 

Beryl isn't one to hang around. Its forward motion has been pretty speedy since it formed last week, and that's not really going to change much.  After it hits the coast, its remnants will be out of the Lone Start State by sometime Tuesday morning, when it heads into Arkansas,.

VERMONT IMPACTS?

A rejuvenated soon to be Hurricane Beryl will hit Texas tonight
or early tomorrow. It's possible its remnants could cause
flooding in Vermont on the anniversary of last
year's catastrophic floods. 

Believe it or not, the remnants of Beryl could help create trouble in Vermont later this week.  By the time it gets into mid-Missisippi valley, it'll just be a remnant low, heading toward the Great Lakes by Friday.

But this type of system can bring boatloads of moisture north with it. Which would add to the high humidity already in place across most of the eastern United States. 

We'll already also have some stalled or slow moving boundaries - basically glorified cold fronts that don't really have any colder or drier air associated with them. 

At least parts of Vermont had a wet June, and most of Vermont had heavy rain Saturday, except for some isolated areas that missed out on the showers and storms. So the soil is pretty wet and can't handle as much rain as it would after a dry spell. 

This has all gotten the attention of the National Weather Service office in South Burlington, especially since the flood potential would hit on the exact anniversary of last summer's catastrophic floods in July 9-11.

"We are getting increasingly concerned about a potentially significant hydrologic episode right on the 1 year anniversary of last year's flooding," the NWS office in South Burlington wrote in their Sunday morning forecast discussion. 

There's a lot of questions in the forecast. The arrangement of boundaries and the richest moisture in the atmosphere midweek is to be determined. It's possible nothing bad will happen at all. Or, slightly worse, just a few spots will see enough rain to trigger some local flash flooding. 

NWS/South Burlington continued in their Sunday morning discussion: "It is certainly plausible that our region escapes next week relatively unscathed. But it is important to be prepared for the reasonable worst case scenario, which is for scattered to numerous flash flooding if we do get repeated rounds of heavy rainfall and storms to tap into the abnormally moist atmosphere. Please stay up to date with the latest forecast."

Yeah, just what we need. 

It's only Sunday, so it's a little soon to hit the panic button.  But if you're in a flood prone area, now is a good time to think about what you would do if that torrential rain were to hit. Flooding is the last thing Vermont needs right now.  So let's just hope the Beryl and its remnants have run out of unpleasant surprises. 

Trump Administration Feeling Heat On Texas Flood Response

The grim search for bodies continue after
the July 4 catastrophic floods in Texas,
as our early look at Trump era FEMA
response is not great, 

 The Trump team is finding out it's harder to manage major disasters than they thought.

And the public is learning why a fully staffed Federal Emergency Management Agency might not be such a bad idea after all. 

Let the state's handle it, FEMA isn't necessary,  the Trumpers said.  This Texas flood will manage itself, they must have thought. Or at least disappear in the next news cycle, so it won't be a problem for them anymore. 

We know that if something doesn't directly benefit Trump or his minions, it's not worth dealing with it. So to their minds, why mess with that Texas mud pit?

But when disasters get this big and stay under the media spotlight like the Texas floods have done, it gets harder and harder to control the narrative.    

At last check, at least 134 people were confirmed dead  in the Texas flooding   Huge swaths of the Texas Hill Country are devastated, with houses washed away, others with flood damage up to the ceilings 

The Trump folks are publicly patting themselves on the back about what a good job they're doing with the Texas flood, but the evidence suggests otherwise. 

CALLS UNANSWERED

The New York Times on July 11 reported the now-really short-staffed FEMA was answering very few calls for help after the Texas disasters. Answer rates to the FEMA disaster assistance hotline fell to roughly the 35 percent rant on July 6 and just 16 percent on July 7. 

As USA Today reports: 

"The lack of responsiveness happened because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters.

The agency laid off the contractors on July 5 after their contracts expired and were not extended according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter.

Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who has instituted a new requirement that she personally approve expenses over $100,000, did not renew the contracts until Thursday, five days after the contract expired. FEMA is part of Department of Homeland Security."

It appears to me ICE Barbie, as I call her, did not worry about this mess-up until it appeared there might be a public relations problem brewing. 

ICE Barbie, who is much better at cosplaying and posing for the media, naturally went on TV.  Here's her quote from her appearance on NBC's 'Meet the Press with Kristen Welker."

"No employees were off of work....... Every one of them was answering calls, so false reporting, fake news and it's discouraging. It's discouraging that during this time, when we have such a loss of life and so many people's lives have been turned upside down, that people are playing politics with this because the response time was immediate."

Notice the careful wording.

A lot of employees had been let go. The ones that were left were answering calls. I'm sure every one of the few remaining did answer calls, as Noem said. She just left out the part that a bunch of people who could have helped handle the big call volume weren't there anymore. 

Any criticism is supposedly "playing politics."  The crisis in Texas is far from over, so you'd think prodding an agency to actually help people is the definition of caring about "so many people's lives."

MICROMANAGING

Noem's micromanaging - reviewing any expenditure over $100,000 - also slowed the response to the Texas flood in other ways. As CNN reported:

"For FEMA, where disaster response costs routinely soar into the billions as the agency contracts with on-the-ground crews, officials say that threshold is essentially 'pennies' requiring sign-off for relatively small expenditures.

In essence, they say the order has stripped the agency of much of its autonomy at the very moment its help is needed most.  

'We were operating under a clear set of guidance: lean forward, be prepared, anticipate what the state needs, and be ready to deliver it,' a longtime FEMA official told CNN. 'That is not as clear of an intent for us at the moment.'"

This for instance meant FEMA couldn't pre-position Urban Search and Rescue crews from a network of teams stationed regionally around the country. Noem reportedly didn't authorize FEMA's deployment of  the Urban Search and Rescue teams until more than 72 hours after the flooding started.

For their part, the Noem team used other search and rescue assets and didn't need this Urban Search and Rescue Team. 

The head of FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue branch,  Ken Pagurek, resigned Monday over frustrations with Noem and other Trump appointed FEMA heads. CNN reported that he quit after months of frustration with the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the agency.

Another talented, needed person leaving because of this idiotic bunch.  Said a DHS spokesperson: 

"FEMA is shifting from a bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens......The old processes are being replaced because they failed American emergencies for decades."

The spokesperson has it exactly backwards. Until now, FEMA has been praised for its rapid response I'm the immediate emergency in the hours and days after the disaster strikes.

UNEVEN DIRECT RESPONSE

The very valid criticism of FEMA comes in the recovery phase, where applying for assistance and money for rebuilding roads, other infrastructure, homes, and businesses, and girded for the next disaster, always seemed to become a horrible, bureaucratic slog. 

That's where the FEMA reform coulda, shoulda happened. 

FEMA has ultimately arrived in Texas, and they do seem to be trying to help. Parts of the old, better FEMA infrastructure are still there. At least for now.  

Victims are being encouraged to contact FEMA, despite the phone issues to start claims. The agency has set up a help center and has started processing claims. 

Some Texas flood victims said that FEMA has been helpful so far, which is a glimmer of encouragement here.

But private and church groups are leading the way, searching for victims, mucking out damaged homes and setting up field kitchens for people whose houses have washed away or otherwise have been left uninhabitable. 

Still the Texas FEMA stumbles are disconcerting. 

I doubt FEMA and the Trump administration will change course much, but the bad Texas disaster response is certainly being noticed. 

"Heck of a job, Secretary Noem," the Houston Chronicle editorial board sarcastically wrote. The remark is a throwback to former President George W. Bush's notorious and highly inaccurate praise for then-FEMA Director Michael Brown as New Orleans flooded during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Several Democratic members of Congress demanded an investigation into Noem's response to the disaster. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts called for her resignation. None of this will happen, given the Republican fealty to whatever Trump and his minions do, but it's notable. 

The irony is that Noem, acting FEMA director David Richardson and the Trump administration is undoing what had been badly needed FEMA reforms after the Katrina debacle.

Speaking of Richardson, he didn't make any public statements and appearances for more than a week after the floods. Usually, FEMA directors are splattered themselves all over the news when there's big disasters, giving overviews of the federal response to these calamities. 

Richardson, who famously seemed unaware that the U.S. has a hurricane season, does not have five or more years of disaster management experience. The post-Katrina reforms require FEMA directors to have such experience, but the Trump administration is getting around that by keeping him as the so-called "acting" director. 

Another indication how unseriously the Trumpsters take disaster responses

And remember, this terrible flood happened in a red state.  Trump is the probably the most sinister transactionally motivated person in the world. He'll help his supporters until he doesn't need them anymore. 

But he'll attack his perceived enemies and try everything he can not to help.  What if the Texas disaster happened in a blue state?

We got a taste of that during and after the immense and deadly California wildfires back in January.  

Trump threatened to withhold disaster aid to California unless the state enacted voter ID laws. Never mind that those ID laws have nothing to do with wildfires. That casts doubt on whether he will approve $40 billion California Gov Gavin Newsom has requested to help pay for fire recovery costs.  

Meanwhile, other disasters have hit since Texas and more loom, Wildfire season is ramping up.  Forecasts point toward weather conditions in the coming days and weeks across much of the West that favor large fires. 

Hurricane season has started. The big ones usually hit soon - mostly in August and September. Those flash floods keep hitting all kinds of communities in the United States.

We've known for months that Trump and his loyal band of sycophants are not inclined to help their fellow Americans. Again, because there's nothing in it for them. No profits, no monetary gain. And gawd forbid any of this crew to help disaster victims because it's the right thing to do.

Trump, according to numerous reports, at least once called fallen military service members "losers and suckers."

I think he believes disaster victims are losers and suckers, too.  

Odd Winter Heat Raising Winter Fire Dangers In Texas, Colorado, Elsewhere

Flames in the Sabine National Forest in eastern Texas.
Numerous wildfires have broken out in eastern Texas
because of oddly dry, warm winter weather. 

Since it's been oddly warm and dry in the southern United States so far this winter, out of season wildfires are breaking out in places from Louisiana to Colorado. 

There's already been a few high fire danger days in Colorado in December. This afternoon, parts of Colorado, along with areas of New Mexico, are seeing a high fire danger due to strong winds, low humidity and drought. 

The fire danger is expected to spread and intensify tomorrow. The Texas panhandle is the highest risk area on Monday. Nearby sections of southeast Colorado, eastern New Mexico and Oklahoma are at risk, too. 

Eastern Texas and parts of Louisiana are also dealing with fires after a winter so far of light precipitation and record high temperatures. 

In just one Texas County, one fire department got 50 calls for outdoor blazes. More calls came in the next day. This despite the fact that many East Texas and western Louisiana counties and parishes are under burn bans. 

East Texas saw about 70 wildfires in the week leading up to New Years Eve.

Wildfires also swept through areas of Oklahoma in December. Fires got so dangerous in Kansas last month that the governor declared a state of emergency. 

It's been dry in Florida, as well. It's usually driest in Florida in April and May, and the state does occasionally get spring wildfires. But so far winter has been pretty arid in the sunshine state, raising fears of winter fires, and ever-more ferocious wildfires in the spring. 

Things could get worse across Texas in the coming days. Dry, warm, windy weather is due most of this week. Some rain might finally arrive in New Mexico and west Texas around Thursday. Record high temperatures and dry weather are expected until Friday, when a little rain might sneak into eastern Texas and Louisiana.  

But that rain doesn't look like much, and it'll stay dry and relatively warm for winter. Up in eastern Colorado and Wyoming, there might be a bit of precipitation late this week, but they'll also revert to dry, warm weather by the weekend. 

Ominously, snow cover in the Colorado Rockies is far below normal, which could set the stage for widespread wildfires this summer. 

CLIMATE CHANGE INFLUENCE 

Winter wildfires have really become more of a thing in recent years. Climate change has brought warmer winter weather. That has allowed some areas of the nation to dry out more. 

Last January brought us the catastrophic Los Angeles area wildfires that caused 30 direct deaths and possibly as many as 440 indirect fatalities. 

So far this winter, California is relatively safe from wildfires due to some storms that blew through in November and December. 

Another devastating winter wildfire hit the area around Boulder, Colorado toward the end of December, 2001, destroying about 1,000 homes. 

There's essentially no longer a "fire season." With the help of climate change, fire season in the United States starts on January 1 and goes through December 31. 

 

Long Lasting Texas Heat Now Spreading; Violent Storms On Edge Of "Heat Dome" Humidity/Rain Lingers Here

Derecho approaches Charleston, Illinois Thursday in
this web cam grab.

 Aside from the smoke from Canada choking large swaths of the United States, we now have a nasty heat wave and violent storms added to the mix. 

Heat warnings and advisories are scattered from California to Georgia.  

The Midwest is digging out from a violent derecho on Thursday and more nasty storms are on the way. 

And a tease we'll get to near the bottom of the post: We here in Vermont aren't immune from the bad weather over the next few days, but it won't be anything like the South and Midwest. 

Let's get into the heat wave first:

HEAT GROWS

Most of Texas has been broiling under a relentless, long lasting heat wave for about two weeks now.

Mercifully, the heat has avoided most of the rest of the nation.  In many parts of the United States, it's been a relatively cool June. 

That state of affairs is ending. 

The heat is expanding and is now starting to include almost the entire South from California to Georgia. And it's starting to creep north. Heat advisories have gone into effect as far north as Missouri.

Blame what is known as a heat dome. It's an area of high pressure with sinking air that prevents clouds and showers from forming. Heat domes trap hot, and often humid air beneath it, so people who live under one of these domes definitely suffer. 

The heat dome in Texas has been especially long lasting. And brutal. 

The Texas heat has been impressive. Del Rio, Texas had 10 daily record highs in a row, which is absolutely insane.  If you get three record hot days in a row, that's impressive. But 10?  Also, it has not been under 80 degrees in Del Rio since June 15. 

Already, at least 13 deaths have been attributed to the heat in Texas. But that might be an under count. 

In the dystopia that is Texas, prison inmates are dying of heat in prisons that are not air conditioned, but the cause of the deaths is often attributed by state officials as "cardiac arrest," masking the role of heat.

I agree that people who commit crimes must be punished, and prisons should not really be cushy. And what about the prison guards that have to work in those conditions?

But the Texas system is dangerous. As Texas Tribune reports:

"More than two-thirds of Texas' 100 prisons don't have air conditioning in most living areas. Every summer, as temperatures routinely soar well into the triple digits, thousands of offices and tens of thousands of prisoners are cramped inside concrete and steel buildings without ventilation, save windows broken out of desperation and fans that blow hot air. The heat has killed prisoners, likely contributed to severe staff shortages and cost taxpayers millions of dollars wrongful death and civil rights lawsuits over the last decade."

By the way, Texas lawmakers, as usual did not put any money directly toward installing air conditioning in the hot prisons, despite a $32.7 billion budget surplus, Texas Tribune says. 

Over in California, they've had a pretty cool year so far. That's changing now. Much of the Golden State is under excessive heat warnings and advisories. Temperatures are expected to reach the triple digits in the Central Valley.

So much snow fell in the Sierra Nevada mountains this past winter that a lot of it is still there. Melting will become rapid during this heat wave, so creeks and rivers flowing out of the mountains could flood. Plus, people tempted to dip into these creek waters and swimming holes could be endangered by the very cold water flowing in them. 

The good news is the part of the heat dome over Texas is weakening somewhat. It will stay hot there, just not as hot as it's been.

BRUTAL STORMS

A derecho swept across a swath of the Midwest late Wednesday through much of the day Thursday. It started with a supercell with an impressive tornado in the southwest corner of Nebraska late Wednesday, then a streak of big hail and damaging winds overnight in Kansas and Nebraska, followed by a great gush of thunderstorm winds of up to 100 mph roaring through parts of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. 

AccuWeather radar image of the derecho in the Midwest
Thursday. When a line of storms forms a backwards "C"
like this, winds at the front of the C are especially intense.

I'm sure damage totals will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars if not more, given the huge area this storm covered. It also hit populated areas like Springfield, Peoria and Champagne, Illinois and and Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Cities suffered widespread tree damage and downed power lines that in some instances will take days to fix. In the hardest hit towns, where winds reached 100 mph, roofs flew off buildings and houses, grain bins blew away and outbuildings were shattered.

More severe storms are expected today.  This is something called the "ring of fire."  Weather disturbances ride along the northern edges of that so-called heat dome in the South.  These disturbances tap into the extreme heat and high moisture content of the air to create violent storms. 

"Ring of fire" storms are pretty common June through much of August.

Some of the same areas hit yesterday are under the gun today and tomorrow. Not many tornadoes are forecast, but many storms with destructive winds and hail are expected to blossom

UP HERE IN VERMONT

Nothing so dramatic is in the cards for Vermont, but that doesn't mean the weather will be completely benign. 

Today still actually looks fairly nice, despite the wildfire smoke that has prompted a continuation of the air quality alert.  It's still not as bad as last Sunday, but people with health problems, the elderly and very young should try to limit their activity outdoors. 

At least it won't rain for once. But it will still be a bit on the humid side.

The real humidity and the shower threat comes back tomorrow and last through much of the upcoming week. A few showers and thunderstorms might rumble through tomorrow. 

Those showers will be more widespread on Sunday, so once again, we'll have to watch for the chance of a localized instance of flash flooding or two somewhere in the state. If any flooding happens, it won't be widespread, but could cause real trouble in a town or two.

Hit and miss storms will continue through much of the upcoming week amid the persistent humidity. It won't rain all the time, but you might find yourself dodging a downpour or thunderstorm or two during your Fourth of July fun Monday through Wednesday.

There's a chance a cold front could finally diminish the humidity in about a week, but that is an uncertain proposition to say the least. 

It's possible that welcome cold front could fall apart before it ever gets here. Stay tuned. 

 

That Must Have Hurt: Likely New Record Sized Hailstone In Texas

This hailstone, found near Hondo, Texas on April 28, was
6.4 inches in diameter, likely the largest hailstone
in Texas history. 

They say they make everything bigger in Texas.

Including hailstones, apparently. 

During a barrage of Texas hail storms on April 28 that likely caused well over $1 billion in damage, a giant hailstone fell near Hondo, Texas, and it is likely a record big one. 

The hailstone was measured at 6.4 inches in diameter, or about the size of a honeydew melon. 

The hail fell from an immense supercell thunderstorm near Hondo, Texas, west of San Antonio.  That storm - at least on radar and satellite, was one of the largest, most intense supercells I have seen.  It produced a tornado, winds of more than 80 mph and lots of giant hail stones, many of them as big or bigger than softballs. 

The storm weakened a bit by the time it got to the major city of San Antonio, but still caused a lot of damage there. 

In Hondo, which experience the supercell at peak strength, the wind driven, gigantic hail was so intense that the stones crashed through roofs and even walls of some homes. 

As soon as the storm passed, a woman retrieved the big hailstone from her property and threw it in her freezer. 

The National Weather Service office in New Braunfels, Texas helped dispatch the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety to check out the big hailstone. 

The IBHS has a fancy 3-D image scanner that can examine hailstones in detail.  They used the scanner to measure the hailstone at 6.4 inches in diameter. 

Radar image of the intense supercell storm over Hondo,
Texas on April 28 that likely produced the largest 
hailstone in Texas history. 

If you're wondering why an insurance related company would buy and expensive 3-D  scanner and go around measuring hailstones, it's because they want to reduce hail-related costs.  

The scanners can help the insurance industry understand the density and shape of hailstones and how they cause damage. 

Perhaps from there, roofs, windows, vehicles and other objects can be designed in ways to minimize hail damage, especially in areas of the country that are most prone to such storms. Hail typically causes more than $10 billion in damage annually in the United States.

As big as that Hondo hailstone was, it's still not the biggest on record for the United States. A hailstone that fell from the sky and onto Vivian, South Dakota on July 23,2010 measured a huge eight inches in diameter. 

That's about as wide as a sheet of standard printer paper, but lord knows that Vivian hailstone was a lot heavier than that! 

Texas Cold Snap/Winter Storm Prompts Flashback To 2021 Nightmare

Lots of winter-related alerts in Houston this week as
the worst cold wave in three years descended. Unlike
the 2021 disaster, the state's electrical grid is
expected to survive this cold snap, probably. 

 For the first time this winter, it's cold across pretty much all of Texas. 

Wind chill alerts extend from Amarillo in the northern panhandle to Brownsville at the southern tip of the state. 

Freezing drizzle has been falling in spots around Texas, causing gridlock on the roads.  

This is all prompting flashbacks to the February, 2021 disaster. In that case, record cold combined with incompetent management of the Texas electrical grid created long lasting, widespread power outages. 

As a result, at least 246 Texans died in the freeze, though some estimates brought the total to at least 700. Damage amounted to more than $1 billion as frozen pipes burst statewide, causing widespread property destruction.

The still not aptly named Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT was urging people to conserve electricity today to prevent another round of blackouts. 

Stores reported some panic buying, as people cleared shelves of bread, milk and other household groceries. 

So far, though, unlike in 2021, the Texas electrical grid appears to be holding up. Mostly because this freeze is not as deep and won't be as long lasting as the one three years ago.

Plus, in a rare spasm of actually making sense, the Texas Legislature passed rules requiring ERCOT to do a better job of winterizing equipment ahead of the cold season.   Plus a ton more giant batteries and wind and solar generating stations have been built in Texas since 2021.  The stored energy in batteries can be a backup if other parts of the grid fail.

 That should help ERCOT manage this cold snap. It's a decent test to see whether green energy can help during severe weather. 

Anyway, the current freeze is still impressive and causing plenty of trouble in Texas. Especially southern and southeastern parts of the state where intense cold is not common.

Record low temperatures were reported around Houston this morning, including 19 degrees at Bush Intercontinental Airport, 21 degrees at Hobby Airport in Houston and 17 in College Station. 

Many schools and business are closed in Houston and around today after ice formed on the city's many highway overpasses and bridges. 

On the bright side, the cold will end quickly in Texas. By Thursday, forecast highs in Dallas are in the mid-50s and Houston should reach the mid-60s. 

Video: Only a little bit of icy on Houston freeways, but what a mess!  Click on this link to view or if you see image below, click on that: