Winter Death Storm 2011 (Updated for Winter Death Storm 2014)

[Stupid Fitz]

Nothing will change in Texas.

It will but it will be slow.  Despite some people claiming the contrary, the only insulation for outages in this event were either proximity to critical infrastructure and/or hospitals or having a generator.  Some of the richest zip codes in the metroplex were without power for greater than 50% of the time and shouldered a huge load of the energy bleed off.

Texas is not the same Texas it was 10 years ago.  More influx of out-of-staters is slowly changing the atmosphere.  Those people losing power are not the same crop of people as before.  These neighborhoods are now full of transplants whose politics align differently.  Doing without power in order for cronies to make a buck is no longer in the interest of people as the neighborhoods are now getting filled with CEOs and executives whose businesses have relocated for the business climate.

Translation:

Texas is about to get the shazbot! Gerrymandered out of it.

[sys]

Sorry if I missed it, but would "being part of the federal system" (sorry if this is phrased incorrectly) have done anything to help prevent Texas' situation?  I see people referencing that, but I'm unclear how that figures into it exactly.

the parts of texas not on the texas-only grid (lubbock and el paso) have not had significant power interruptions.

[star seed 7]

I could see Texas having some aggy wind turbine bonfire and making solar illegal.

[Institutional Control]

Sorry if I missed it, but would "being part of the federal system" (sorry if this is phrased incorrectly) have done anything to help prevent Texas' situation?  I see people referencing that, but I'm unclear how that figures into it exactly.

the parts of texas not on the texas-only grid (lubbock and el paso) have not had significant power interruptions.

Most of rural Texas has been unaffected by the rolling blackouts as well.   My inlaws live an hour outside of Dallas and have not lost power yet. 

We live in a suburb of Dallas and here are our outages:

[kim carnes]

The amount of outrage about this is kind of comical.  Like, this is a once every 20 years weather event.

[Institutional Control]

The amount of outrage about this is kind of comical.  Like, this is a once every 20 years weather event.

eff off.

[WildcatNkilt]

Is it though?  These polar plunges are becoming more common. 

But it's ok we can all ignore climate change like it is NBD.  rough ridin' Libs, right? 

[kim carnes]

Is it though?  These polar plunges are becoming more common. 

But it's ok we can all ignore climate change like it is NBD.  rough ridin' Libs, right?

When is the last time this happened?

[420seriouscat69]

I guess Dallas really isn’t the new LA.

[Spracne]

I don't find it particularly amusing that people are dying as a result of govt negligence.

[420seriouscat69]

I don't find it particularly amusing that people are dying as a result of govt negligence.

It was an old board joke.  I agree.

[catastrophe]

The amount of outrage about this is kind of comical.  Like, this is a once every 20 years weather event.

What is, hot take from the Great Depression, Alex.

[Stupid Fitz]

The amount of outrage about this is kind of comical.  Like, this is a once every 20 years weather event.

What is, hot take from the Great Depression, Alex.

Back when people had bootstraps or something like that.

[yoga-like_abana]

I don't find it particularly amusing that people are dying as a result of govt negligence.

Thanks, Biden!

[Institutional Control]

Update: electricity for 4 straight hours now. And.... hot water!


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[SleepFighter]

We didn't have electricity for 30+ hours, from early Monday morning to yesterday afternoon. It got down into the 40's inside the house. Some people in my zip *still* without power. Lucky us, as of this morning we don't have water, due to some combination of burst mains and/or electricity shut off at pump stations.

This crap is rough ridin' maddening, but no, I don't think a damn thing will change.

[SleepFighter]

The amount of outrage about this is kind of comical.  Like, this is a once every 20 years weather event.

Get mumped.

[WildcatNkilt]

Is it though?  These polar plunges are becoming more common. 

But it's ok we can all ignore climate change like it is NBD.  rough ridin' Libs, right?

When is the last time this happened?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January%E2%80%93February_2019_North_American_cold_wave

Iowa had record breaking temps in 2019.


Not enough data yet when the study was done in 2001, but from what I read:  "The general assumption is that reduced snow cover and sea ice reflect less sunlight and therefore evaporation and transpiration increases, which in turn alters the pressure and temperature gradient of the polar vortex, causing it to weaken or collapse."

I understand the above quote as forced climate has altered the polar environments which can cause the giant ball of cold to collapse and create a flower petal affect where we get this dip of cold air.  This is not uncommon (polar vortex) but was pretty rough ridin' intense and scientists predict it will continue to occur as the north pole continues to melt. 

[steve dave]

NE blew the doors off record lows for this deal. I think we got -30 here but west of us was lower.


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[Pete]

Climate change is really going to suck if we start getting regular 110 degree August days and -30 February days.

[wetwillie]

Elon will figure it out

[Pete]

I think I need a Northern Minnesota summer home and a southwestern winter home.

[DaBigTrain]

I think I need a Northern Minnesota summer home and a southwestern winter home.

Highly recommend.

[sys]

https://twitter.com/stonks702702/status/1362270550224113667

[cfbandyman]

Ast getting all huffy about Texas having four million people without power overnight and comparing it to the great plains doing 20-60 minute pauses is very texasy

Not huffy at all.  I was told Texas was having blackouts because Texas.

Apparently Kansas is having blackouts because Kansas.

Apples and oranges in scale.

And in case anyone was wondering, KY and KS are connected, all of the Eastern US, and a ton of Canada connected together.

And all of Western US connected together.

Not connected: Eastern US, Western US, and Texas,

Hence why Texas has 4 mill out, KS after dealing with this for 2 weeks decides "well we'll occasionally have outages every so often and not for everyone and only for like 3 hours a day for some people" Texas after it's exhausted all it's resources after 2 days: welp that's it isn't it but the power for emergency sources". That's the difference. That and natural gas for everyone (lol) is just poof, CO2 right now. And here I was told fossil fuels were the reliable ones.

Resiliency and grid reliability comes in numbers (for the most part).

And I was not trying to pick on you obv, you can't do anything about it, it's just really funny (to me) to have "we can do this on our own we're our own goddamn country" Texas brought to it's knees over a little cold in 48 hours time.

And that's with all the oil a Texan can shake at. At least it took KS 2 weeks to succumb to (occasionally) having to have (some) people go out (for 30-60 minutes). And most of that succumbing is due to Texas falling down at it's fat face sucking all the natural gas for itself as it huddles for warmth around the burnt out embers of it's pride cause it can't handle it.

I am glad you talked about apples & oranges in scale.  It is a great point.

Roughly the same number as or more people were out of power in Texas than the entire population of Kansas.  Maybe that brings to light the scale difference in how many people the Texas grid is providing power too.  To go even further, it looks like ERCOT services most likely twice as many people as SPP.

The infrastructure and houses are not built with this cold of weather in consideration.  Why?  Because historically there is not a need for it.  So when this type of event happens, there becomes way more demand per person/household than our northern counterparts.

This is in no way a post white-knighting ERCOT and it is becoming pretty apparent as this event unfolds they are a mumped ip group.  Several of its board members do not even live in Texas.  So this does not appear to be a Texas only mindset as has been implied heavily.  The chair and vice-chair live in Michigan and Germany so this is apparently not Texas only thinking.

For the record, going off of the little information that is available on their actions at this point, I hope that ERCOT is severely overhauled or even dismantled after the investigation into this event.

But to say you are comparing apples to apples in referring to the blackout in Kansas and Texas is just as disingenuous on your end.

All of your post is fair, the bold is really the crux of my issues of the "Texas being Texas." They decided to create their own grid, on their own, and play by their own rules. It is well and good, but, and as unfortunate as you all have to live with said consequences, you are seeing that. I get CEOs and others can live wherever to do whatever, but Texas still decided to go in it alone. And you are right, they should be investigated and dismantled for thinking they knew what they were doing. After all, it birthed the ability for companies like Enron to go around and selectively blackout people because of economics, instead of thinking of the welfare of their compatriots.