The smaller the difference in temperature, the more the wind belts meander (Via @RemoteLongitude & @NOAA) pic.twitter.com/GEpzwjw1dS. The city of Fort Worth told constituents to close their blinds and stuff towels in cracks to retain heat. Though most power is now restored, millions of Texans are still without water as treatment plants recover. Prison inmates had to live with overflowing, unusable toilets for days. In the 1970s, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, was formed to manage the state’s electricity distribution. Millions turn to Vox to understand what’s happening in the news. Is it a state of the union? Houston firefighters had to deal with low water pressure when dousing residential fires started by candles, displacing dozens of Houstonians. There is controversy among climate researchers about whether extreme cold events like Winter Storm Uri will become more common or not as climate change continues. And, of course, our climate-change-denying Republican Sen. Ted Cruz famously jetted off from Houston to Cancun with his family mid-crisis as Texans froze to death. 18th Annual Photo Contest Winners and Finalists Announced! Texas is where the West starts, home of high-riding cowboys and oilmen who project an image of self-reliance — all they needed to prosper was a government that stayed out of their way. Give a Gift. As Oxford remains shut down in the midst of Winter Storm Uri, many are reminded of another winter storm more than 25 years ago that left hundreds without power … In one camp, scientists expect that warming temperatures will make the events less common. You see, we’re individuals, and, like one Texas mayor wrote on Facebook, we shouldn’t expect state institutions to help. Find more ways to contribute here, here, here, and here. Average temperature Feb, 15, 2021: 20.5 (difference of 35.9 degrees) Deaths blamed for extreme cold across the U.S.: 69. Over the course of the week, about four million people lost electricity across southern states. or And it showed just how much our access to these things depends on our leaders — both elected and appointed — making the right decisions at every level. Usually a strong jet stream confines Arctic air to the north, stabilized by a big difference in temperature between low and high latitudes. For a week in February, Winter Storm Uri caused snowfall, ice and freezing temperatures across Texas and surrounding states. Local officials gave suggestions on how to make do. Still, during Uri, ordinary Texans didn’t just help themselves. Over 120 million of those people were placed under winter storm warnings or ice storm warnings by the National Weather Service. HOUSTON, TX - FEBRUARY 18: People line up at a propane gas station to refill their tanks after winter weather caused electricity blackouts on February 18, 2021 in Houston, Texas. Winter storm Uri marks the longest continuous freeze on record for most locations. One reason that Texas has had such a difficult time handling the effects of the winter weather is that the state has its own power grid, almost entirely independent of the country’s eastern and western power grids. The lowest bidder would win customers in the marketplace, but that encouraged power generators to delay or neglect weatherizing critical equipment. Advertising Notice We lost power for most of Monday and Tuesday, but luckily, we never lost water. I draw a line from this catastrophe to America’s fetishized individualism for which Texas, home to a fierce secessionist movement, is the poster child. Record snowfall and low temperatures have interrupted services like heat, electricity and water for millions of people living in southern states that lack cold-weather infrastructure and snow removal mechanisms. 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