The US weather service warns of icy polar weather: A weather emergency has been declared in numerous states. Millions of people in the state of Texas are without electricity.
Update from February 16, 2020: Arctic cold has gripped much of the United States. In the state of Texas, more than 2.7 million people were without electricity on Monday, according to the website Poweroutage.us. Governor Greg Abbot declared a state of emergency over the winter storm and appealed to all Texans to be careful about the “extremely harsh weather”.
The National Weather Service (NWS) spoke of an “unprecedented and far-reaching, dangerous winter weather” from one coast to the other. Snow and ice storm warnings are currently in place for over 150 million US citizens. Hundreds of flights had to be canceled nationwide.
In addition to Texas, the state of emergency has been declared in Alabama, Oregon, Oklahoma, Kansas, Kentucky, and Mississippi. In Oregon, 300,000 households were without electricity.
In the Texas metropolis of Houston, temperatures fell to minus 9 degrees Celsius. “We woke up this morning and all the pipes were frozen over and we had no water in the house,” said Burke Nixon from Houston to the AFP news agency.
The southern state is not used to icy winter weather, the snow storm led to chaos in parts of the country. The snow is nice to look at, “but at the same time very dangerous because people don’t know how to drive on it,” said Michael, a resident of the city. Many drivers drive too quickly.
Many US citizens have been suffering from snow and cold for days, only parts of the southeast and southwest were spared.
Weather emergency in the USA: Extreme cold and massive snowfall
Houston – The winter not only has Germany under control these days. In the USA, the consequences of the unusually cold winter weather are felt even more severely. Persistent cold air from the Arctic should set new cold records for large parts of the country this week. Warnings of winter and ice storms * would currently apply to over 150 million US citizens, the weather service said on Monday.
Weather emergency in the USA: At least seven states are threatened with record coldness
At least seven states have already declared a weather emergency, including Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, according to CNN. In some areas there, the temperatures are likely to be 25 degrees below the usual readings for the season.
Winter chaos in Texas: hundreds of thousands without electricity
In Texas, for example, hundreds of thousands of people had to get by at times without electricity. For many Texans, their mostly electric heating failed in houses and apartments – and that at temperatures of minus 10 degrees. The state network agency announced on Monday morning (local time) rotating shutdowns of parts of the network in order to prevent a complete breakdown of the supply.
Initially, around 10,500 megawatts were taken from the grid, which corresponds to the consumption of around two million households, as the ERCOT agency explained. The website poweroutage.us, who tracks power outages, even spoke of more than two million customers in Texas without power. US President Joe Biden approved a declaration of emergency for the state on the border with Mexico on Sunday evening (local time) due to the unusual winter weather. This can, among other things, mobilize additional help from the Fema disaster control agency.
Weather Warning: “Unprecedented Winter Storm” in Dallas
In the Texas metropolis of Dallas, for example, people woke up on Monday to temperatures of around minus 13 degrees Celsius. In much of the state, residents had to cope with snow and ice. Governor Greg Abbott had previously warned that the approaching “winter storm” was “unprecedented” in the strength of the state’s history. He urged all people not to leave their homes if possible to avoid accidents.
In the southern US state of Texas, hundreds of thousands of people were without electricity because of unusually cold winter weather.
© Eric Gay / AP / dpa
The extensive cold front has already reached Canada and parts of northern Mexico. Many US citizens have also been suffering from snow and cold for days, only parts of the southeast and southwest were spared. According to the weather service, it will remain warmest in Florida with temperatures around 27 degrees Celsius and outliers that are above normal for this time of the year. (va / dpa / AFP) *Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen digital editorial network.
