Episode CLXXVI: It Gets Cold, Texas Falls Apart

We've weathered some epic winter storms in the past. But the disaster we just experienced in Texas is easily the worst. Not because it was severe (it was very mild by Boston standards), but because the Texas power grid essentially planned to be unprepared for such a storm.

It started innocently enough. An inch or two of snow. Frigid temperatures.

The next day we woke up to a rare Texas winter wonderland.

But by then we were beginning to experience scattered power outages, which just kept getting worse and worse over the next three days.

Overnight temperatures crept as low as ~5 degrees Fahrenheit outside. And when you combine that with no electricity for heat, you wake up to a very cold house.

We learned that our thermostat doesn't actually read anything lower than 54 degrees (why would it, right?) According to a mercury thermometer I brought home from work, our bedroom got as low as 45 degrees. 

And that's with a well-insulated house! My colleague who lives in a historic (~1920s) home sent the picture below. You're supposed to let the tap run so your pipes don't freeze, but that's not so effective if the inside of your house is well below freezing.

Most of our time was spent trying to not die of hypothermia. For example, we spent lots of time boiling water at the stove.

We played a whole lot of "tent."

And we spent a good deal of time in Elliot's bedroom (aka the walk-in closet) because it's an internal room with excellent insulation, and our body heat could render it a bearable place to be.

Note that Elliot's having a grand old time throughout all of this.

I personally went to bed at night wearing three layers of clothes, plus 3+ blankets. And I was still cold.

Eventually, we were saved! Not because Texas got its act together, but because the weather got warmer. And with electric heating restored to our house, we could finally go outside and enjoy the snow.