There was a big winter storm that came into Houston on Tuesday, bringing with it freezing rain, sleet, hail, snow and even graupel! That's right, graupel, look it up. Don't worry, it's safe for work.
The thing I thought most telling about the storm was one of our weatherman's graphics that showed the leading edge of the clouds passing over Texas. In one town the temperature was 54 degrees. In the town just next to it, where the clouds had already arrived, it was 34! A few miles meant a twenty degree drop in temperature.
Well, it got cold and rainy in Houston. Now, I'm no namby-pamby when it comes to weather. I lived for thirteen years in a region that saw heavy snowstorms that dumped many feet of snow every winter. We had blizzards, and cold that was enough to freeze your nuts off. If you're Rish's friend on Facebook, then this picture probably looks familiar to you:
He likes to place an action figure out on the deck to demonstrate just how bad the big snowstorms get.
But, the one thing we didn't see much there was freezing rain. I only remember one time that it happened there. It was about a year and a half before I moved away. I remember coming out to my car after work; going to scrape the window off, which was covered with ice; and having all the ice come away from my window in one giant sheet. It was pretty weird.
But when you're used to dangerous road conditions, nobody has to tell you to drive slow. So, even with ice on the roads, there weren't many problems.
Houston, though, isn't used to dangerous road conditions. They might know really well what to do if the road is flooded, but when it's icy and slick? Fuggetaboudit.
So, on Tuesday morning when the ice rain began, I got a little nervous about my drive in to work.
My kids didn't have to worry at all. Their school was canceled.
We were pretty amaazed when that happened. We'd never had a single day off of school because of weather until we moved here, despite having so much more snow. Everyone in the family chuckled, and called Texans a bunch of lightweights. Schools weren't the only thing shut down either. Businesses all across the city were closed. When I finally got on the road to work, the streets were pretty much empty.
I have to say that it was probably wise that they did that though. The drive was pretty hellish. The roads were ugly. When it's cold, bridges and overpasses are the places you have to be most careful with, because they ice up the most. And everything in Houston is a bridge or an overpass or at least an elevated freeway. I probably spend half of my commute driving on some structure up in the air instead of on a freeway on the ground.
I probably drove the entire trip at about 35mph. I can only imagine the disaster it would have been if there had been the usual amount of traffic out there.
It only got worse for my drive home. The icy rain had passed, but the temperature had gotten even lower, so it was dangerous wherever you went. I had Google Maps make me a route home that didn't include freeways (which is actually surprisingly easy in Texas, because there's a ground level service road that follows alongside almost every freeway). It took me through some pretty scary parts of town, but that was fine, because even the criminals were taking the night off. I did see one homeless guy pushing a shopping cart full of stuff down the middle of the street at a run though. I suppose he was keeping moving because it was the best way to keep warm, I don't know.
In the end, despite having to cross a few iced over bridges, I managed to get home safely. Again, the streets were pretty much empty, which had helped a ton. Especially considering that Houstonians haven't got a clue how to handle their vehicle in slippery situations. Doesn't matter how good I drive if the other guy can't keep himself from hitting me, as I learned the hard way recently. But if there are no other guys, then that drasticly reduces the chances of a catastrophe.
Come morning, the world was still pretty iced over, but it was starting to melt. So, I took a few pictures. They might look a little familiar.
The funny thing was that my wife and daughter were in New York at the time. It's my wife's new idea that when each of our kids turns sixteen, she'll look on Frontier Airlines (or whatever the discount airline is, I can't remember the name) and find one of those deals that we often get emails about advertising flights for $30 or $50, and take them on a special trip. So, they missed out on all of it. I sent her this screen grab of what Siri told me the weather would be, and she was surprised to find that it was actually colder in Houston than it was in New York City.
It wasn't by any means warm in New York, and on top of that, the winter storm was heading their way, and they'd get theirs, but for the time being, it was Topsy-turvy Day.
There was another drive to work that morning that was pretty hairy. Mostly the roads were clear of ice, and everything was melting, but it had its danger zones. Particularly when I passed underneath an overpass. The shadow from those things made certain that the ice on the road underneath didn't melt. There was one spot as I passed under the spaghetti bowl of overpasses at Beltway 8 that I lost control of my car for a split second, sliding away like a bobsledder. Then just as quickly the dry pavement on the other side of the shade jerked me back into place. It left my heart racing for a bit, but never really put me in any danger.
I also had to go around on a different route than normal again, because the elevated freeway that I usually take through downtown Houston was closed. I was about thirty minutes late for work...for the second day in a row.
By Wednesday night, everything was clear again, and I was able to take my normal route back home. I'm sure the folks up in the northeast are hating life right now, but we're doing much better down south. In fact, it's supposed to hit seventy degrees by Saturday.
And my wife and daughter managed to avoid it all. They flew home the day after the airport had experienced a bunch of closures. They did have to wait a couple of extra hours to board their plane because of the cumulative delays from the storm, but they got out of New York before it got bad, and landed in Houston after it was all over.
I am a newcomer here, and I'd always heard that Houston winters were pretty mild. This year hasn't been one of those. One of the anchors on our newscast commented about how we usually get one event like this every five years or so. This year has been crazy, because we have had three different occasions of hard freeze, two of them coming with snow or sleet as well. I hope it's not my fault. I hope it hasn't followed me here. Because if it is, then that means it'll follow me wherever I go, and I won't be able to escape it.
I'm really looking forward to 70 degrees this weekend.
1 comment:
You need hills.
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