Yeah theres a lot of people in Texas and I understand that people are different, but viewing Tiktok videos about people surviving in Texas I’m surprised a lot of people in Texas have fireplaces. Since the average temps in Dec and Jan usually only go down to maybe 50F I figured houses there wouldn’t have fireplaces. Are fireplaces common in Texas homes?
I know the wind turbines weren’t winterized so they can function in below freezing weather. Also the natural gas plants aren’t designed to handle below 0 weather either. I assume natural gas plants can function in that kind of weather though because it gets to those temps up north and the natural gas plants still work.
Also they don’t really have snow plows or salt trucks down there correct?
What about the average Texan individual? They may have a fireplace, but do they have cold weather gear? if the average temp drops to maybe 40F at the worst in a given year, do they have winter clothes for sub zero temperature (thick coats, snow pants, gloves and hats)? Does the average Texan have a snow shovel or any way to provide heating that is not electric?
I know in my state we lost power for 2 weeks in 2005 due to an ice storm once. It sucked, but because we’re used to cold weather and it happens enough that we were prepared for it, it wasn’t terrible. We had kerosene heaters and winter jackets, plus we cooked on a camping stove outside. Then we bought an (overpriced) generator off of a semi truck after a week or so. Mildly unpleasant but not horrible.
But in Texas is it common for some people to not have a fireplace or any means of non-electric heating, and the warmest cold weather outfit they have is a sweatshirt?
I’m not in Texas, I’m in central AZ. Before the weather went to bat-shit crazy, we would get a fun, light dusting of snow every couple of years.
We don’t have a fire place, our home is all electric and I’ve never seen a snowplow in real life.
We would probably die in the conditions we are hearing about. Or make our way to Phoenix where we could get a room at a resort and enjoy the hot tubs.
I’m saying that to say that I think that people who haven’t ever dealt with that sort of weather should be judged or called unprepared for not preparing for it.
Want some advice as to how to deal with things when the wildfires have cut the power off, cinders are falling all around and its triple digit heat? I’m your girl
It makes sense for people to only prepare for the natural disasters that they face in their geographic climate. I don’t need to do anything to prepare for wet and dry season since I live in an area with four seasons. I don’t have any prep for wildfires or earthquakes either since those don’t really occur near me.
Texas doesn’t get hit with snow very often, so it makes me wonder how prepared the average person there is for it. Is it common in Texas to not have a fireplace, a winter coat or a snow shovel? I really don’t know what the culture down there is like, or if cold weather or snow are common enough that people prepare for it.
It totally depends on where you live, I suspect. I mean people living south of about Austin’s latitude rarely see hard freezes- maybe one or two a year at most, and only for a morning or so where it gets into the 20s, with daytime temps in the 40s. People grow stuff like citrus and bananas in the Houston area and further south; only the occasional crazy cold snaps like this are a problem.
As you go further north, the winters get more severe- in DFW, there are usually multiple freezes a year, and it’s not unheard of to get a cold snap where the highs don’t rise above freezing for a day or two, usually with some ice or snow. And about once a decade, we get something like we’re seeing now- prolonged sub-freezing temps, ice and/or snow, etc… But temps in the 20s and upper teens are something we see every year, and freezes are something we see every couple of weeks or so. So people are sort of half-assedly prepared for this kind of thing, at least more than further south. And the Panhandle is effectively Oklahoma/Kansas type climate- snow, ice and real cold is common in the winters there.
Personally, we got bit by an ice storm about 7 years ago, and I laid in some emergency supplies- a propane camping stove and a bunch of propane, a bunch of battery lanterns, we keep non-perishable food around, sleeping bags, etc… It’s all come in handy now that my boys are in Scouts, but that’s not why I bought most of it. We also have a natural gas grill, so in a pinch we could cook on that too.
This is very true. We (Texans) always make a face and shake our heads when we hear about heat waves where temps are around 100 in other states. That’s just normal summer weather, and we don’t start really bitching until it gets over 105 or so (I’ve seen as high as 108-110 before). But it’s a life or death problem in other more northerly states who aren’t used to or prepared for that kind of thing, just like a temp of -1F is a big deal in Dallas, or 7 is a big deal in Houston.
A fire when it’s 50 degrees out can be cozy, there’s a social prestige to fireplaces, and thus I’m not entirely surprised fireplaces exist in Texas. However, I would not expect apartment dwellers to have fireplaces and there are a lot of urban neighborhoods where people live in apartments, not single-family homes.
(Some upscale condos might have fireplaces, and it’s possible for an apartment to have one but unlikely.
Likewise, people with camping gear and experience are going to have an advantage. I have a “hobo stove” that can burn almost anything burnable and boil a cup or two of water - it’s not very sophisticated but I also have some food that only needs boiling water to make a meal that will keep me going and help keep me warm.
It’s not just having material items, there’s a knowledge/culture component at work, too. A few years ago I lived three weeks in a location without electricity, gas, or running water (no, not entirely by choice). There was one night I boarded my three parrots at the vet because I can’t get them to wear sweaters, but I camped out at home. It wasn’t fun, but it was tolerable because I had the gear and the knowledge to make it work. Not everyone has both components.
No, why would they? It’s not cost-effective for them to purchase and maintain such equipment. Maybe some locations would have plows they could mount on a garbage truck, and there’s always earth-moving equipment which could be used for such a purpose but if you only see a light dusting of snow every 5-10 years I just don’t see anymore making that particular investment.
This is where cultural knowledge can kick in. A lot depends on the life experience of the individual. I know how to layer clothing, so I might be able to better assemble a useful cold-weather outfit from the “average Texan closet” than the average Texan might (you concentrate on layers over the torso, but you need to keep them loose. You want to make sure there’s closure around your neck and, for pants, your waist to help keep warm air inside your clothes. A layer of pantyhose under your socks/pants can help keep you warm. You can pull loose sweat pants over jeans to help keep your legs warm. And so forth. Yes, the “average Texan” might have some notion of this as well, but I’ve had to use this knowledge, probably more than they have, and experience counts, too). If I need more than the closet could provide I’d get a blanket and cut it into a rough poncho to go over the other layers (the day it got down to -27 in Chicago I actually wore an alpaca-wool poncho over my ankle-length down coat, so it’s not like us northerners don’t resort to extra layers in extremes). Would that occur to the “average Texan”? I have no idea. Maybe they already have a poncho - and even a plastic rain poncho could help keep wind and water off the rest of your clothes. Work or gardening gloves aren’t ideal, but they can provide some protection for your hands and I expect those items are fairly common in Texas.
If you don’t have a snow shovel then a flat shovel, like a coal shovel, can work in a pinch. With snow shoveling, though, there is a technique. I approach the problem differently with light, fluffy snow vs. heavy wet snow vs. snow that compacted and turning into ice. If you haven’t had to deal with this before it can become extremely frustrating, difficult, and for the wrong individuals even life-threatening.
Do they have a way of cleaning snow and ice off their vehicles? A broom or brush will work for light snow, but they’ve been getting ice, that’s a little different.
The “average Texan” probably doesn’t own a snow shovel - but they might own a shovel that would be an adequate substitute. Maybe.
I’ve seen videos on TV showing Texans doing things that I would do if I lost my heat, like covering windows and doors, using blue painter’s tape or the like against drafts, retreating to one room of a residence. Texans do have access to knowledge and resources. But there have been some unfortunate fatalities from people attempting to stay warm - people using charcoal inside, people using heaters that are not appropriate for indoor use, people using running cars in a dangerous manner. I suspect some of this is desperation combined with lack of knowledge. You CAN use your car for warmth, but you must do it outside, not in a garage, and if you’re going to be sitting in the car for a significant length of time you want to make sure the exhaust isn’t too close to doors or windows of where people are living. This seems obvious on a certain level, but if you’ve never been faced with these conditions before it becomes easier to make a mistake. There is also the fact that when the initial stages of hypothermia set in people don’t think as well, and the longer they’re cold the worse their ability to think clearly and rationally gets. The temperatures in Texas and the rest of the south have been low enough, and people without heat long enough, that this could be setting in.
I also, unfortunately, expect that when this is over we’ll find a number of people were killed by the cold. There is already one city ordering a refrigerated truck in anticipation of deaths from this weather event.
In sum: as someone who has lived up north all my life I would, in the same environment and with the same gear as the “average Texan” have a few small advantages due to experience and cultural knowledge. But, honestly, not that much. Without modern heat or in a building with good insulation/built for such weather, and without cold weather gear, the weather they’re having is, to be frank, life-threatening.
We have a fireplace as does everyone in my middle-class neighborhood. We have a gas log though, so it won’t heat up the house, but it’ll certainly help.
Pretty much everyone has at least a medium jacket I’d say. If you’re not spending hours outside, you don’t really need much more than that (with a few layers underneath).
They will often times pre-treat the highways with some sort of salt mix when these conditions are forecast. Side streets are going to have to wait for the melt.
I shoveled my sidewalk yesterday with a garden spade. I only noticed one other neighbor that did any shoveling.
On the side-topic of fireplaces - we’ve been watching Flip or Flop - rehabbing houses in Orange Cty CA (Dtr lives there and is considering buying a house.)
I’ve ceased to be surprised at the number of homes there that have fireplaces. The weather would not warrant them.
We had a working fireplace when living on the Texas Gulf Coast. Didn’t use it that frequently, but there were certainly many nights in the 30s and 40s (and on rare occasion in the 20s) when a fire was nice. Fireplaces aren’t very efficient for warming a home when the power goes out however. I recall a post-ice storm outage in Kentucky that lasted several days. We started burning telephone books (remember those?) in the fireplace toward the end.
Many Texans would be accustomed to power outages secondary to severe storms and hurricanes. The combination of unusual and extended cold and lack of power is what has people freaking out.
What I never understood was lax building codes necessitating panicky warnings from officialdom in the event of cold weather that pipes were in jeopardy of freezing and bursting. In a climate like Houston’s there are on average several nights a year when temps can be expected to go below 32F. Why not plan for it? In the case of older homes, retrofit. Government programs to provide insulation to homes in poorer neighborhoods would prevent a lot of trouble too.
Well, Texas is a big state. So up in the panhandle, darn right they have snow shovels and cold winter gear. If you’re a middle class or more wealthy Texan there’s also a modest probability you have clothes to go skiing in Colorado or New Mexico. But the further south you go, yes, the less likelihood you have really good clothes for cold weather.
I grew up in Dallas in a new tract subdivision, and every house around us had a working fireplace… more of a pleasant amenity, as someone said above, but certainly useful now. I also had an older house in Fort Worth with a fireplace, but we never tried using it. Both had gas jets to get the wood-burning…if those aren’t working now, you have to know how to light a fire. Also, fireplaces are a crappy way to heat a house, but better than nothing.
I doubt there are very many houses built in the last 50 years in OC that don’t have a fireplace. Even my mom’s 60-year-old triplex two miles from the beach has a fireplace in every apartment. The houses without them usually date to the building boom between 1946 and 1955. That said, most fireplaces in Southern California only get used a handful of times a year, some never. And they are almost all connected to gas.
Oh, one other thing-practically everyone I knew in Texas had a gas grill, even people in apartments with balconies. As long as you’ve got propane, at least you can boil water and heat plenty of food.
All of that said, I worry a lot about all the poorer people in Texas right now, people who don’t have gas fireplaces or gas grills or ski clothes or some warm place to hunker down. Social support services in Texas are dodgy as it is, there is no way they are prepared for this.
As a lifelong DFW resident, winters here can get cold, though what we are seeing at present is a once in a generation event. It’s been nearly 40 years since we last saw a cold outbreak this bad.
Most homes in this area do have fireplaces, though they aren’t going to generate much in the way of heat. Of course, most people also don’t use actual wood for the fireplaces, but rather something like Duraflame, which doesn’t last nearly as long nor probably generate as much heat.
I was actually able to get out and drive around yesterday afternoon and was pleasantly surprised that the roads were passable. The drivers who were out were being courteous and taking it easy, but it didn’t take me much longer than usual to get to my destinations. Thankfully, we avoided getting any major ice, which is what you really don’t want. The last major ice storm was in 2013, which is where we all learned about “cobblestone ice.”
There are heads that are going to need to roll over this situation; unfortunately, I am not confident that there is going to be a sober assessment of what needs to be done to avoid a situation like this in the future. Greg Abbott already seems to be trying to establish the narrative that this was because the wind turbines froze in West Texas, even though that is demonstrably not what is causing all these issues. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Well, you see, there’s this notion that the free market is supreme and government can’t do anything right so let’s privatize everything. Don’t want to subject to the dictates of the DC beltway so set up a separate powergrid from everyone else that’s entirely in-state so not subject to Federal rules and regs and let private companies and the free market work their magic. Rinse and repeat for a lot of other things. Regulations just get in the way! Get rid of them!
In fact, short-term it’s cheaper to build with little or no insulation and without considering once a decade or once a century storms. It’s cheaper to skip winterizing wind turbines. It’s cheaper short term to gamble the bad thing won’t happen. So that’s what private industry does. And since the flaws don’t show up quickly the stuff that’s made cheaper sells/rents better because it doesn’t cost as much.
Then >boom<, the unexpected happens and there’s no reserve, no redundancy.
Government rules and regs aren’t all evil. Look at the states surrounding Texas, including places like Louisiana at the same latitude and with the same weather. They’re having problems, but not nearly to the same extent.
This is what I saw when I was in the west Texas town of Levelland about 20 years ago for Christmas. They had 12 inches of snow Christmas eve and oil field equipment like bull dozers and back hoes were brought into town to clear the streets (the day after Christmas).
North Texas is used to cold weather and the occasional snow. Ice storms are common and can be really bad there, especially in the Metroplex, with all of its many freeways and overpasses. Once you get to Austin and points below, they’re a lot less prepared.
But the grid itself was overwhelmed, and not even in North Texas are they hardy enough to go without heat in that kind of cold.
A large part of Louisiana is on a grid that extends to the east, so they have the benefit of sharing energy with areas that are cold, but not nearly as cold as the center of the country. The part of Louisiana that is on a shared grid with Oklahoma and Kansas is also heavily struggling.
ETA Not really disagreeing with your post, just pointing out that a big part of the failure of the Texas system is an unwillingness to share with other systems, and Louisiana is also suffering a little from that.
A decorative fireplace is a totally different beast from a woodstove that’s used to provide heat to a house.
As a general matter, a decorative fireplace removes heat from a house, not adds heat.
There’s some radiant energy out into the room, but the draft pulls more interior = usually warm air up the chimney than the fireplace provides in radiant heat. When your furnace is functioning normally, starting a fire in the fireplace will make the furnace run more and probably make most of your house cooler as outdoor cold air is pulled in through every crack and crevice in your building.
In a cold weather survival situation absent a furnace, you may get some benefit retreating to the fireplace room and building brief small fires. But it’s real easy to do more harm than good.
