Winter Ice Storm in Texas

[MammaBearinTN]

Much sympathy to all of you in Texas. At first I thought this was an issue with downed power lines but that's not the major problem, lack of generation is causing your woes.

Texas needs to eliminate the independent ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas, how ironic) power grid. There is plenty of spare generating capacity in the USA to keep the lights on in Texas, you got to connect to the national grids.

Texas needs more regulation such as, natural gas turbines need to ability to run in -20 degrees F temperatures. That's just ridiculous that you can't keep power plants running in cold weather. Of course Governor Greg Abbott is blaming renewable generation such as wind turbines. From CBS,



The ability to backup intermittent renewable generation is the primary justification for fossil fuels generation, a major fail in this case.

OK, no more ranting.....

If the national grid has so much extra power, why does California have rolling blackouts every year, especially since they know it's going to happen with such regularity? Where is the preparation for a yearly event if the western national grid could supply California with power?

Texas is experiencing a once in a century storm, so, no, they weren't prepared for it. Heck, the cities in Texas shut down with a little ice on the roads because they don't have the salt trucks and equipment to salt a whole city for a 48 hour event that might occur every 10 years. Houses aren't winterized nearly as much as homes in the north, because they didn't need to be.

No doubt with climate change, Texas leaders will have to prepare for colder weather, but they have to believe in climate change in order to prepare for it. The issue is will they prepare for the future?

 

[Slaphppy7]

I AM DONE WITH THIS COLD WEATHER STUFF! Low water pressure and 12 hours with no power today. Having to boil our water now. Spent the day topping off tanks to keep them warm and adding battery operated bubblers to all of the tanks. Wrapped them all tight like babies. All faired well in the end. Was a little worried about the bettas but they never missed a beat. Kept the fry tank plugged into generator so they had filter and heat. I thought my first power outage would be from a hurricane not an Artic Freeze and storm. Please, bring me my Texas weather back. I will NEVER ask for snow or complain about humidity again. I need my flip flops, sweet ice tea, and hot sand in my toes. I am definitely a Southern gal! One more day if I can make it! You Northerners are like crazy aliens. Who wants to live in ice and snow? Nope! No more! Ever!!! Sorry! Not me! Ain’t gonna happen! Not for all the tea in China. You couldn’t pay me to do this again. No way! Nope! This is it! I’m buying a bigger generator!

And, praying your power comes back on soon, if it hasn't yet

 

[Slaphppy7]

If the national grid has so much extra power, why does California have rolling blackouts every year, especially since they know it's going to happen with such regularity? Where is the preparation for a yearly event if the western national grid could supply California with power?

Texas is experiencing a once in a century storm, so, no, they weren't prepared for it. Heck, the cities in Texas shut down with a little ice on the roads because they don't have the salt trucks and equipment to salt a whole city for a 48 hour event that might occur every 10 years. Houses aren't winterized nearly as much as homes in the north, because they didn't need to be.

No doubt with climate change, Texas leaders will have to prepare for colder weather, but they have to believe in climate change in order to prepare for it. The issue is can they prepare for the future?

Good questions...

 

[FishGuest5123]

And, praying your power comes back on soon, if it hasn't yet

It is back on, thank you so much for caring.

 

[Slaphppy7]

It is back on, thank you so much for caring.

Great news, glad to hear it.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Snow!

 

[madmark285]

If the national grid has so much extra power, why does California have rolling blackouts every year, especially since they know it's going to happen with such regularity?

During extreme heat waves, we don't have excess power generation. Nationally, the amount of generation required by the USA (~140% of average) is determine by extreme heat waves. In the winter, my electric consumption (western New York) goes down as I use natural gas for heat and hot water. So northern states which do not use heat pump have excess generation during the winter.

And California has not help itself by prematurely shutting down a nuclear plant and numerous gas plants.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Snow!
View attachment 129309
View attachment 129310

WOW, a bunch of it...enjoy....I've had enough of it, lol

 

[FishGuest5123]

Snow!
View attachment 129309
View attachment 129310

I normally would think this was beautiful but not now. Makes my stomach turn. ? I just need to hang on one more night. My tanks need cleaning but tap water not safe right now. Ugh! I need some fun in the sun!

 

[FishGuest5123]

Don't hold back Deana, tell us how you really feel! LOL, just trying to lighten your spirit a bit, don't ban me from the forum!!

Yes, this stuff has gotten old, quickly...our water pressure is SLOWLY coming back up (couldn't take a shower last night, yuck), and I'm still so blessed that we didn't lose power...2 more nights of hard freeze predicted, after that we warm back up...but everyone around here will see the HF warnings, start dripping their faucets again, and pressure will surely once again drop...c'mon, Springtime!

I wouldn’t ban a fellow Texan! I just think our blood runs on Sun block and iced tea. We just aren’t made for this stuff. Give me a warm beach and a good horse. I’ll be a happy gal riding the shoreline. In my younger days I would have been riding in a bikini with cowgirl boots on. What a tan line! Lol.

 

[FishGuest5123]

If the national grid has so much extra power, why does California have rolling blackouts every year, especially since they know it's going to happen with such regularity? Where is the preparation for a yearly event if the western national grid could supply California with power?

Texas is experiencing a once in a century storm, so, no, they weren't prepared for it. Heck, the cities in Texas shut down with a little ice on the roads because they don't have the salt trucks and equipment to salt a whole city for a 48 hour event that might occur every 10 years. Houses aren't winterized nearly as much as homes in the north, because they didn't need to be.

No doubt with climate change, Texas leaders will have to prepare for colder weather, but they have to believe in climate change in order to prepare for it. The issue is will they prepare for the future?

Funny, Al Gore called it “Global Warming”. Now it’s “Climate Change” because he got it wrong the first time around ?

 

[madmark285]

Funny, Al Gore called it “Global Warming”. Now it’s “Climate Change” because he got it wrong the first time around ?

source: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/202013

 

[Stan510]

Did somebody post the Yahoo story of a Platy frozen solid in its 30 gallons or so aquarium?..a block of ice.
Today at a local park. We are lucky to be far west of the catastrophe back east.

 

[Back in the fold]

To watch the news you would think that Texas and Oklahoma are a total write off. I hope that all of you people down there have escaped most damage and will be fine. What do you heat with down there ? Natural gas or electricity ? Why all the busted water pipes ? Is there no insulation in your homes because of a normally warm climate ?

 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

Funny, Al Gore called it “Global Warming”. Now it’s “Climate Change” because he got it wrong the first time around ?

I'm not sure if you really want me to clarify this, but I'll do a quick explanation just in case. So, you are right the term was modified. This is because when it snowed people would get confused. The thing is it's the same exact process; it's both. Globally heat energy is increasing, that is the temperature of the planet as a whole is increasing. However the impact of that fact at any given location, and any moment in time varies. Heat energy is what drives weather systems, which means with more energy in the system (a warmer surface on Earth), weather systems can be bigger. That can manifest differently at different times and in different places. Essentially what we are getting is higher likelihood for bigger weather, if you will. That could mean both bigger storms, and bigger droughts. It could mean bigger dips in the jet stream bringing bigger cold snaps (which was always known in the scientific community, but didn't translate well to the public at large with the use of "global warming"), or bigger heat waves. The science hasn't changed. Not at all. The term change was only meant to try to better communicate what the science is and the implications. I could go on, and would be happy to explain further or answer any questions if there is interest, but I'm guessing that would be more appropriate in another thread.

I know it can be difficult to ascertain tone in writing, especially in electronic formats, but I truly don't want you to feel like I am attacking you in any way. Honestly, scientists who study climate are the worst at trying to communicate their science. They so often veer from what is known with certainty into what they think should be done about it, which expresses their values and their opinions as individuals. The truth is, it's a completely reasonable stance to suggest "we might tech our way out of this". No one can say that won't be true. Indeed scientists who get upset by this sort of suggestion are inadvertently dismissing the work of their colleagues who are researching just that. All that said, when someone takes the stance of "it's not happening/real". Well, they take themselves out of the conversation about what to do, if anything. That's because it's simply not reality. Data outweighs opinion there. For me personally, I find that a little sad. I'd rather get more voices to the table to explore the widest range of options. So I always encourage people who hold divergent viewpoints about what to do to keep themselves in the conversation by not suggesting that the mountain of data doesn't exist. After that point, reasonable people can disagree about what can or should be done.

During extreme heat waves, we don't have excess power generation. Nationally, the amount of generation required by the USA (~140% of average) is determine by extreme heat waves. In the winter, my electric consumption (western New York) goes down as I use natural gas for heat and hot water. So northern states which do not use heat pump have excess generation during the winter.

And California has not help itself by prematurely shutting down a nuclear plant and numerous gas plants.

These are great points! As someone who grew up in California, blackouts were just a part of winter storms. A lot of that has to do with the choices PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric) makes. Their maintenance of their transmission lines is so poor they have been linked to both winter blackouts and summer fires. It is interesting to me now though how we never questioned it at the time. I suspect that has been part of what happened in Texas. We roll with the system we have until we get tired of it, and we take a bit of pride in our capacity to endure. I think that is a shared and very human response. It can get us into trouble though.