It was late when I crawled out of bed having slept well and the first thing was the walk around the park. It was still below freezing outside but the heavy jacket kept me warm. The coldest part of me was my face and not my legs as many people think. I guess wearing shorts all the time my legs are used to the changing temperatures. Now if it gets really cold, then I will have to rethink the shorts thing. We are scheduled for a couple more overnight freezing temperatures and then hopefully, we will get back to our normal Texas weather although, these past couple of winters have been much harder than what we are used to. Climate change and all that no doubt.
We walked around for about a half mile taking care to avoid any icy patches which still remained in the shady areas, but it was cold enough to be uncomfortable even for the dogs as they made a beeline home when I suggested it by a gentle tug on the leash. We had a leisurely breakfast before settling down to read emails although to be truthful, most of what I get are junk with only the very occasional one of any interest or that needs my attention. In some ways, that is not a bad thing but in others, it shows just how much I have cut myself off from all my friends and acquaintances of long ago. My choice, I guess but not intentionally. Our paths just went in different directions as we all moved on with our lives. Now, if I only had a way to control the junk email. Everything is thawing rapidly although I carefully knocked the long icicles off Miss Daisy for fear they would drop and damage her. The roads are clear although I have nowhere, I need to go for the next few days. Monday, I have a doctor’s appointment in Dripping Springs, just a short drive up the road for a regular annual checkup.
Late in the afternoon, I went outside as I had to hook up the hose to fill the freshwater tank for the next couple of days. Much to my surprise, the Park standpipe was frozen even though I had it covered with Plankets which are supposed to help in this respect. Melinda, the Park Super, happened to walk by and asked if things were OK. I told her the problem and she suggested that I pour some hot water on the faucet which I did, and which did the trick. However, when it came time to hook up my water hose, I discovered that it too was frozen even though I had previously drained it, or so I thought. Obviously not. Melinda brought me a hose so that I could fill my tank and stood by to help as needed. I thanked her profusely and she said that most of the park standpipes had frozen and they had spent all day working on defrosting. I stretched my water hose out by Miss Daisy so it would thaw and be ready to hook back up when this cold spell has passed in a couple of days. With water in the tank and everything covered up again, we went out for the afternoon walk. Altogether, walking a mile for the day.
Henly before the snowstorm showing some ice build up.
Winter in Central Texas is usually an enjoyable thing considering the season. In fact, a lot of RV’ers choose to spend winter here because it is so mild but this year, 2021, it has been the hardest in living history. Normally, for us, a couple of freezing nights and occasionally a dusting of snow and then the following day, back up in the 60° area and that is it. This is generally followed by an early spring just to get us started for the year. This year however, things have been different, very, very different. We had a very mild fall and early part of the winter until a couple of weeks back, we had about 3 inches of snow that fell with the temperature above freezing. It didn’t last very long and was gone a couple of days later. That by itself was not normal but we said to ourselves,”This is Texas, expect the unexpected”.
Now, two weeks down the road, we get hit by a deep freeze that has lasted for several days followed by a 6-7 inch overnight snowfall. The snow stayed on the ground because of the very low below freezing temperatures both day and night. One night the thermometer dipping below zero. For us, this is totally unheard of and definitely one for the record books. As you can imagine, everything came to a stop including a lot of traffic as most Texans are not used to or equipped for driving under snow and icy conditions. The sensible ones stayed home by the warmth of their central heating and fireplaces trying to wait it out, me included although I still went walking in the afternoon mainly at the insistence of the little girl, Sandy. The little boy dog Mikey, not so much but he came along in case he was missing out on something. I tried my fireplace but managed to fill the house up with smoke as something seems to be blocking the chimney. Probably a squirrels nest. I will check it out when it warms up. Couldn’t happen at a worse time.
To make matters worse, many people were without electricity as Texas went into rolling blackouts that were put into place to redistribute the energy in a more even fashion. This also meant in many cases, that residencies were also without heat. As the freezing weather lingered on, indoor plumbing was affected as pipes froze which put them out of water with many suffering from plumbing leaks. Many more leaks will be discovered when the pipes thaw and normal water supply is resumed. Any plumbers out there should be prepared for a rush for their services. The State even issued a plea for residents to conserve water as the system was in dire straits of imminent failure because of the demand. Seems reminiscent of the first announcement of Covid and the rush on toilet paper as this time around, a lot of people filled bathtubs and containers. For those living in an apartment or a neighborhood where the houses have no backyards or were on top of one another, being without water also meant that the toilets no longer flushed. For us country folk, that was not so much of a problem as we could always use the great outdoors. A little chilly perhaps but needs must. A lot of people have taken shelter elsewhere with relatives and friends or even at the local hotels, many of which quickly filled up and eventually, also suffered from the same lack of electricity and water.
The roads are a mess with still some snow remaining in places and icy patches in others. As the snow thaws, ice forms under the top layer of snow making for both treacherous driving and walking. I noticed a lot more vehicles today as the roads began to thaw most of them driving real slow. A lot were equipped with 4 wheel drive which really helps. My truck is so equipped but unfortunately for me, it is in the shop getting worked on. The timing couldn’t be worse and the loaner that I have is no match for these driving conditions. I don’t really want to chance it anyway. I can remember sliding sideways, very slowly down a hill when I lived in New York State before ending up in a deep snowbank with my stepson imploring me to “Straighten up the station waggon because he was scared”. We waited there in the cold with the car heater running to keep us warm until the tow truck arrived to pull us out. This was before cell phones and I had to sit and wait for the next car to come by to get them to make the call for me when they reached a phone. Those were the good old days…
Tomorrow, after more than a week of this weather, it is supposed to warm up through the day but still be below freezing at night for at least a couple more nights and then, hopefully, back to normal temperatures for Texas for this time of the year which should put us in the 50°-60° range. With the snow and cold weather gone, it will be cleanup time of the many branches that have fallen because of the weight of the ice and are laying around my yard. So far, none have fallen on the roof or the house itself.
That will still leave us with the questions that remain to be answered such as why did both the electric and water grids collapse under these extreme conditions. One answer of course is that this is an abnormality, something that has not been seen before in most people’s lifetime. Because we are geared for the summer when the temperatures rise above 100° and AC’s are running full blast which is what we expect, most major maintenance work on these systems is performed in the winter resulting in a lot of equipment being offline. That plus the demand for power outstripping the supply will also bear looking into.
When this first started and the roads were still driveable, I managed to get over to Henly to check on the Eagle, my RV and change out the gas tank. After the storm, I also was able to get the Park Super to change it out a couple of days later but since then, the Park has run out of propane with delivery dates unknown at this time. I can’t wait for the roads to become driveable so that I can check on her. Hopefully, with the water tanks and plumbing drained, there will not be any problems. I suppose in some respects, I should be grateful that I was not living in the RV as it would have been really cold and difficult with no way to stay warm or cook food or worse yet, make coffee. I do have a couple of space heaters which I could really use in the house but of course, they are in Henly.
In either case and whatever the reasons, this will be a winter to remember and it is not over yet as we still have at least a month before our expectations of what we consider a normal Spring to be realized. Is this a forewarning of Global Warming? Many will suggest that it is with worse to come down the road. If this is true, then there is an awful lot of preparation for future winters that needs to happen here in the great State of Texas.
The view just outside of Henly of the icy conditions
I disembarked from the Queen Mary on her final voyage from England, landing in New York Harbor on March 13, 1967. That was 54 years ago. My family and I were met by my Mother and one of her neighbors who she had somehow coerced into making that 400 mile round trip from Fort Plain, NY to New York City. He had a big Ford Station Wagon, which incidentally, was the biggest car I had ever seen. It had enough room for himself, my Mother, my family consisting of myself and my wife and four kids ranging in age from 4 to 12 plus Melody, the English Cocker Spaniel we had brought over with us AND all of our luggage including a couple of large trunks that went on the roof. I would imagine that as an extra incentive, she probably paid him for his services.
We headed up the Thruway arriving in Fort Plain late in the evening and I remember looking in wonderment as the very large semi trailers towing another trailer, rushed by us, I had never seen anything that big on the road before and here it was commonplace. I quickly got used to it in the following weekes. That night, we had 13 inches of very wet snow. Like the tractor trailers, I had never seen 13 inches of snow before all at one time. Sure we had snow in the South of England where I lived but never usually much more than 2-3 inches at a time. I honestly wondered just what we had let ourselves in for.
I stayed in New York State for 10 years with it’s cold, snowy and generally miserable winters when circumstances including a divorce, another marriage and a job change brought me to the great State of Texas where I have resided in the Austin area for these past 44 years. That does not make me an expert on any subject neither do I claim to be a Texan but it does entitle me to elaborate my views on the Texas weather as now, I have 44 years of experiencing it. The one constant in Texas weather is that it gets bloody hot in the summer, Every summer. Not just the occasional one but every summer. It’s the one thing that can be relied on is that there will be an unknown number of 100 degree days. The record so far is 90 days at 100 degrees in 2011 but with the climate changing as it is, that could easily be broken in the next few years. Weatherwise, the Summer season will probably soon start around the May 1 and end somewhere around the end of October instead of starting June 20th and ending on Sep 22 as it currently defined. Hopefully, not.
Now, we have another weather extreme at this present time. here in Austin. Three weeks ago, following what had been a very mild winter, we had a very large (for us), snowfall of 3 inches or more. Follow the link to the blog I wrote about it here. It didn’t stay around for very long as there was not any cold or frosty weather to go along with it and was gone with no visible signs in 2 days. Except that is, for broken tree limbs and others things in need of trimming and clearing up. Now, 2 weeks later, we are in the grip of an icy spell for these past few days with temperatures forecast to plummet down as low as 10° Fahrenheit tonight and zero to 1° tomorrow and slowly maintaining the sub zero weather through the next couple of days. It will remain that way until Friday when it will finally get above freezing at night. The daytime temperatures will stay below freezing through Wednesday when it is forecast to slowly start to get to what we consider normal for the time of year. In our case 50’s and 60’s during the day. A little over a week ago, the temperature was up to 80 plus degrees.
We have had the occasional ice storm and freezing weather in the past but never for it to remain at or below freezing for more than a week and never for it to freeze all day as well. This is so unusual and out of the norm and coupled with the snowstorm of a couple of weeks prior, that we can only contribute it to climate change as man slowly destroys his own planet. Like I said, I moved from New York State, where this sort of weather is not a bit unusual, to get away from it. I remember going skiing once in the evening only to walk all the way back down the mountain carrying my ski’s over my shoulder as the windchill was something like 50° below freezing. I still got frostbitten ears even with all the gear on, facemask and all.
Icy trees on Murmuring Creek
All of the brave flowers and plants that started their spring cycle will all be cut down by the frost and the survivors will have to start over. The fish in the ponds will survive as long as the pumps and aerators continue to function keeping the ponds ice free. It will mean that everything in the garden will need cutting back to clean it up. Wonder if I will be in the mood to do that or will I wimp out, again and give it to my garden contractor to do?
I hate cold weather and now as I grow older, have trouble staying out in 100 degree weather for too long. You just can’t please some people. When I moved from England, one reason that finally decided us was that it was always raining and I mean, always. Then I moved from New York State to get away from the winters where it was very cold and snowy. Now this. Where can I can move to next?
And now, as I look out of the window, it is starting to snow. What a hell of a winter and I mean that quite literally. On top of that Sandy, the little girl dog is mad at me because I would not take them walking this afternoon. I tried to explain to her that the roads are icy and I don’t want to slip and fall down but she doesn’t get it. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.
I am completing this the following day as that snow that started last evening kept on all night and we ended up with 5-6 inches of the white stuff. What is worse is that the daytime temperature is not scheduled to rise much above 20° and then drop again overnight to 2° by the morning. Tomorrow is not going to be much better as the thermometer will stay around the same as today and won’t start to warm until the end of the week. This also means that we are stuck with the white stuff for a few days. I hope that the roads get cleared although this part of Texas probably doesn’t have snow moving equipment as it is not the norm for us. I really need to get to Henly and check on the Eagle, my RV and probably change out the gas bottle. For me, this snow couldn’t come at a worse time.
This is a pano of the back yard. Very similar to the one 2 weeks ago except there is a lot more snow.
