I live in Texas. I have never seen this much record-breaking weather, day after day, hour after hour. I saw weather forecasts missed day after day. It was always even colder than forecast. In my home town we shattered both snowfall and low temperature records. This makes me wonder if there was deliberate weather modification and control going on whether it be the Russians, the Chinese, a group in the USA, or even extraterrestrials.
Leaving that aside, political leaders in Texas including Governor Greg Abbott failed to enact appropriate laws or regulations to protect the power grid in the event of such extreme weather over a huge area. No one was thinking about how we were going to make it if most of the natural gas pumping stations and pipelines were all frozen. We have both wind turbine fields and solar power fields in Texas which can store great amounts of electrical power on batteries. Why weren't we prepared to use them in the event something like this happened?
Our political leaders made decisions that left us highly vulnerable. Fixing the blame on government regulatory agencies is a cop out but it's par for the course among political leaders everywhere who don't want to publicly admit fault for anything.
@5leafclover and @blackandwhite
I am heartily sorry for the miseries you and other Texans are going through right now. I've donated to the Red Cross and continue to pray for your recovery, as I do when any state experiences hardship. I hope one day all Americans will have benevolent social and political systems that truly support their livelihood, health and happiness. ❤️
Is there anything else we can do to help?
I saw weather forecasts missed day after day. It was always even colder than forecast
This is what my daughter kept telling me. Even the day of all the horrible pile ups had off predictions.
I wonder if the weather is more difficult to predict because it is happening from unusual weather patterns which is effecting things in surprising ways?
Glad you are safe @Sleafclover. May things improve dramatically.
*Warning *Trigger for some of our empathic community members.
I want to share this information because it is important for me personally to state what the truth of this horrible situation in Texas and not gloss over the catastrophic failures of the Government and the impact it has had on human life. I also know that other states are dealing with severe problems from the freeze as well, but Texas had the cataclysmic failure here so it is Texas I am focusing my energy upon.
Now for the tragic news.
They are now discovering people who have frozen to death in their beds. In one such case an elderly man was found who died in his home bed under the blankets. It was the same temperature outside, 12 degrees. as inside his home. ( Per a CNN interview with a firefighter this morning).
I was expecting this, but it is still difficult to hear. It was avoidable on so many levels.
We will hear (and have heard) about homeless people dying of exposure as well. Their lives are just as important as our politicians who can flee to warmer countries during a weather emergency.
In the United Sates of American, human beings resorted to burning their furniture to stay alive.
And yet, I see light.
A love filled human spirit is a beautiful thing to watch. Humanity which is connected to Spirit, to spiritual love and kindness. During the darkest of times, much light can be seen. Much goodness flows. There were angels present, in human form and in spirit form. This spirit will move through these times of despair bringing about good from the ashes of ruin.
The Phoenix will rise.
Firebirds will be born.
Life will not remain as was for the curtain continues to be pealed back.
May the memories of those lost be a blessing.
May all dealing with these catastrophic days feel love, compassion and healing light. May gentleness and kindness overflow. Overflow through the homes and lives, transforming the frozen ice adhered to everything- the hearts, thoughts, lives, and homes - and bring forth a spring filled garden of rebirth and compassion.
May humanity rise and fly as beautiful firebirds, soaring with their wings.
This makes me wonder if there was deliberate weather modification and control going on whether it be the Russians, the Chinese, a group in the USA, or even extraterrestrials.
It's just the Arctic is leaking. The overall global warming has pushed the winter jet stream south and allowed Arctic air to push further south into the continental interior. No conspiracy is necessary to explain it, unless you consider fossil fuel promotion a conspiracy, which I guess you could.
The take-home message from this Nature article is: " We find that a warmer Arctic atmosphere contributes to dilated geopotential heights locally accompanied by lower heights across mid-latitudes and an equatorward-shifted jet stream. This allows Arctic airmasses to expand farther south while increasing the likelihood of heavy snowfalls. "
AOC is on her way to Houston, Texas today. She raised 2 million dollars for 5 Texas relief organizations and will be distributing supplies today.
Cruz also flew to Texas, recently. I am sure he will also do something for the people of Texas, right after he spends his time repairing his shattered image and picking up his family at the airport on Sunday.
@lovendures Weeping... the pain, the sorrow, the angst, the beauty, the hope, the faith.... and I was already reeling with emotion when I came to read this. There is a movie... that came out today on Hulu ... called ... Nomadland .... I highly recommend watching it if you are able.
I felt it was a metaphor for America and her people today.
A nice point of light during thee Texas crisis.
In a Leander HEB grocery store on Tuesday something really great happened. You have seen the lines to get in the grocery stores and the lines for checking out I am sure. Well, while people were shopping the power went out which meant the store needed to shut down. Instead of disappointing people who were desperate for food, HEB allowed those in line to simply walk out of the store with their carts of food, no bags. No payment collected either. What a gift and one that surly provided a great deal of goodwill and relief.
The extreme weather in Texas happened dramatically in winter 2015 in the Boston area when we got 110 inches of snow and the more northerly Alaska didn't get enough snow to run their famous dog sled race. The temperatures in Boston were lower than in Toronto and Quebec.
The Arctic in normal winters has a jet stream in the upper atmosphere of freezing air that circles around it and those cold winds act like wall or chain link fence holding in the cold Arctic weather in a nice circle around the Arctic.
But climate change has brought extreme weather events and in the the Arctic we've had warming faster than any other place on earth. These disproportionate temperature shifts of Arctic versus other parts of the earth has changed the polar vortex or freezing winds so they sometimes don't form a tight circular fence around the arctic. Sometimes that fence gets loopy and allows polar air to escape down and eastward towards the eastern U.S.
That is what happened in Boston in 2015 and in Texas now. We'd be able to handle that in Boston, but Texas has two problems: One is their homes aren't built for that, but much worse, their government has never set up a power grid that shares with other states and their equipment is not prepared for extreme cold.
Good explanation here https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2021/02/19/3-things-people-get-wrong-about-the-polar-vortex-and-climate-change/?sh=3b52ca80426e
@jeanne-mayell That's a good, readable explanation from Forbes.
The author is so right in his concluding statement, "As a climate scientist and communicator, it is a constant struggle to shake people out their narrow perspective that what happens in their little corner of the world is indeed local not global."
That's why among the scientific outreach community, the preferred term for the phenomenon was changed from "global warming" to "climate change"--- Because although it is true that temperatures averaged over the entire year and the entire globe are rising, many people who are seeing snow and cold in their own backyards cannot understand that it is a consequence of generalized global warming. "Climate change" is an easier concept to sell. (Though to me, the drawback is that mere "change" sounds less ominous than "global warming" and is less likely to motivate people to take action. )