comment: >
  
  This one is nothing like the 2021 storm. I drove from Houston to Dallas today, and while it wasn’t pleasant, the road wasn’t a solid sheet of ice like it was in 2021. I haven’t experienced any power outages either.
context: Y'all have had more winter this year than my part of Iowa. >
  
  Seriously, it’s almost 60 in North Carolina today >
  
  Just got our first snow that stuck today in NYC >
  
  …for 2023, or since last fall?? >
  
  NJ here, Got just enough to stick for the morning and was gone by noon..... Only snow we've had since last year. >
  
  This is insane. I lived in Hoboken in 2016-spring 2018. I looked up info on weather before I moved there, and was really disappointed we didn’t get more snow (based on prior years). But we still got more snow than this! >
  
  I've lived in NJ my entire life. This is absolutely eerie. >
  
  It is very creepy. I am in RI. I’m 36 this year and I have a 9 year old son. The last winter in which we got a ton of snow was 2014 and it wasn’t normal. It was from weekly/biweekly nor’easter storms that dumped 6-12+ inches each storm. He was 2 that year and I don’t think he remembers it.
  Last year we got a blizzard that dumped like 30 inches of snow and that was pretty much it. But the couple years before that we hardly received any snow.
  I now feel like an old crazy grandpa telling my son stories about how there would be snow on the ground from November to March. We even got enough snow on April 1st one year to have a snow day.
  This winter going along with the recentish weather trend of mostly mild days with rain instead of snow is making it pretty easy now to experience the real effects of climate change.
  It’s gonna get cold for 2-3 days (if even) then go back to 50+ degree weather. 
  It honestly feels like winter has just fizzled out and now we get extended autumn’s and springs.
  The summer’s are getting hotter too. It would average 80-85 degrees around here during the summer. For the past few years the average temperature feels like 95+ degrees. 
  I grew up without air conditioning and just used open windows and fans to cool off at night for sleeping. Yes there were heatwaves but that was it, a wave of heat.
  Now living without air conditioning is a torture and deadly for some.
  However a silver lining of climate change is all the new science! As the permafrost melts we are discovering amazingly preserved things from the past like the wooly mammoth! >
  
  Snow days? Can’t be Warwick >
  
  No it’s foster gloster >
  
  SW been cancelling flights back to TX for 3 days now, probably again until Thursday. >
  
  Southwest cancelled me. So did delta, so my girlfriend and I are gonna find a hotel for one of our layovers.
  God I wish I could rent a car >
  
  Rental cars sold out everywhere, I'm assuming? >
  
  Age requirements. >
  
  If you’re 21 or over you can at the very least rent a basic sedan. It won’t be glorious but it will be a set of wheels. States vary, but nowadays the 25 age requirement is generally only for bigger SUV’s or luxury cars. Give it a shot if you haven’t already. Better to have a Nissan Sentra than be stranded lmao. >
  
  You are correct. They charge a young driver fee, but you can rent as long as you’re 21. >
  
  I wonder if they've winterized their power grid after the last 100 year storm 2 years ago. >
  
  No, they just jacked all of our bills up a ridiculous amount to make sure the private companies got their money and then did jackall to fix the grid. >
  
  Freedom! Pew pew, the stars at night, are big and bright [clap clap clap clap] because the Texas grid is down again >
  
  The grid is fine.  There's plenty of excess capacity. >
  
  Your source is by the very ass-hats that are responsible for Tx shitty power grid to begin with.  You know the morons who had board members that didn’t even live in the State. Sure they got scapegoated and booted last debacle, but come on… Reliable does not come to mind.
  156k and counting without power in my County.  Sure sucks to be that 10% in a State as big a Texas.
  This time won’t be as bad cause it will warm up by tomorrow, but it is gonna suck for a lot of people. >
  
  I was replying to the person claiming the grid was down again (it's not).  Local outages due to downed wires is not the same as not having enough generating capacity to meet demand. >
  
  Generation does not matter if the transmission and distribution system cannot get the power where it needs to go. >
  
  Local failures in transmission lines are called transient faults, and do not impact the rest of the grid.  They are not "grid failures".  Local failures occur everywhere, all the time.
  A grid failure occurs when supply cannot meet demand, and blackouts are implemented to reduce the load to meet the available supply. >
  
  They are transient until they lock the line out for a permanent fault. >
  
  This is the 2nd day I can't leave my house near Dallas.
  We had hours of sleet, so everything is simply covered in ice.  Not snow ice, but ice that you step on and the wind blows you down.
  If we had 3 feet of snow, it would be easier to deal with than 1" of ice.  Plus, we don't really have infrastructure for either.  
  UPDATE:  Now Thursday, we got a lot of rain yesterday, which was weird as it was below freezing.  All it did was help smooth the ice over even more.  Supposed to be 35 later today.  If the sun comes out I'm hopefully I'll be able to see my driveway, otherwise I'll be stuck in again.  Neighbors car was in their driveway, they were able to get it down their ramp, but even their dodge charger couldn't get back up their driveway, so they parked in the street.  My small dogs have a dog door in a window to let them go out, both at some point yesterday went outside, and got stuck and couldn't get back up the stairs so I had to let them in the back door.  I can't take my trash out, as the 2 inches of 'drift' in front of my fence won't allow the door to open, though I doubt trash is coming today anyway. >
  
  Normally, it's us Okies heading south to avoid the ice storms. I suppose y'all could come north of the Red River. It's hovering around freezing out in the Flat Part, but no precip. Might be rooms at a casino. >
  
  We wouldn't make it out of the parking lots [insert King of the Hill clip here]. >
  
  First things first. Did Ted Cruz make it to Cancun? >
  
  This is talking about flights to/from Texas, where he is not to begin with. >
  
  I don't keep track of his whereabouts. I just like to join in the laughter at his expense when ever possible. >
  
  Any chance to trash Cruz and Abbott is well deserved. >
  
  Don’t forget about Texas AG Ken Paxton >
  
  Anyone have eyes on Ted Cruz? >
  
  Sensible approach. If he’s bailing then shit‘s about to hit the fan. >
  
  The Ted Cruz Winter Storm index is about to unseat Waffle House >
  
  How long till they beg Biden for emergency funds again? >
  
  If it gets bad enough, Greg Abbott will declare a state of emergency and get that federal assistance like he always does. >
  
  Ugh, it's almost as though they don't actually believe their bootstraps thing themselves >
  
  Yes, the bootstrap BS phrase is just to rile the base. >
  
  I'm in Dallas right now. Doesn't seem bad, just a little loose sleet on the roads, but I'm afraid things are about to get really icy. With luck I'm flying home tomorrow. >
  
  I'd say to be prepared... DFW has already canceled 200 flights tomorrow and I highly doubt they aren't canceling more. >
  
  
  I highly doubt they aren't canceling more.
  
  Weird phrasing, but you're likely right. >
  
  Texas: temperature drops slightly below freezing just like it does every winter
  Reddit: “THE GRID!!!!” >
  
  I mean, I’ve been sitting in Austin without power for 2 hours now. So yeah, it is like that unfortunately. >
  
  That’s not because of the grid though. Probably due to a downed power line or a blown transformer somewhere >
  
  You just explained two ways that the power grid cannot handle the weather. Power lines and transformers are PART of the grid. Those getting messed up because of ice is the issue. It’s affecting over 300,000 people at this point. >
  
  I used to live in the Midwest. When there was an ice storm like this one,  guess what? There'd be some lines down. You gonna start ranting against other states too? What next, you think a grid failed because a car ran into a power pole? >
  
  I also lived in the Midwest. And yes, but not 350,000 people in a day and not consistently.
  I never said the grid failed? Did I? I said THERE ARE PROBLEMS with the grid. Which there are. >
  
  You can't just compare raw numbers, since the states have vastly different populations.  
  You probably also think there are "problems with the grid" when a tornado knocks down lines.  
  Do you even know the difference between Ercot and Oncor? >
  
  I’m so confused as to why I am having to defend myself over here. A person brought up the power grid as some sort of point while there where hundreds of thousands without power. I pointed out that there were in fact issues with the power grid, as I didn’t and still don’t have power. That’s all folks. 
  And yes, I do think a tornado taking down lines would be a problem for the power grid. Maybe not one that could be fixed by better infrastructure, but a problem none the less. Well done! >
  
  The point that you seem to have missed is that the outages this time are not because of the same reason as 2021. So you can't point to this year and say there are problems with the grid, because - while there are still issues that need to be addressed - this year is not evidence of that.  
  Also, maybe if you'd actually read comments, you'd be less confused. I didn't say a tornado would be problem FOR the grid, I said problem WITH the grid. >
  
  Huh? The difference between for and with in this situation is incredibly pedantic. 
  I understand that point and have said that in several comments. The point you seem to be missing as that issues with the infrastructure are also issues with the grid. Problems with the grid are not mutually exclusive to ERCOT not having enough power to supply the state. >
  
  I’m in STL for some big meetings for my company and the group that just wrapped up today was from Texas and they all have to stay another night because all their flights got canceled. >
  
  Is this another one of those "once in a lifetime" storms?