Icy During January-end of 2026

Brrr! What a cold several days starting with Sunday, January 25! I recorded the whiteness (mostly ground level) in the morning after the previous night's sleet. Also recorded the next three days, skipped the fifth day, then recorded the sixth day.

The sixth day was thawedful in front, but still icypatched in back. This freeze was forecast/forewarned by weather people starting the previous week. There had been dire warnings that 245 million people, over half of US population, could be affected by the severe weather.

The stocking up of groceries by so many shoppers! It was like grocery shopping at a holiday eve--all cash registers operating, and several shoppers deep per register! We had gone the day before the actual eve, anticipating that going the night before the freeze would be REALLY unwise.

My first recording shows Sunday, January 25 at 7:32 AM. It was 17 degrees. I ventured out onto the front porch, then gingerly stepped onto the back patio a few feet. Crunch, crunch. I ventured as far as the far end of the patio bench.

The next three days of recording the back was through glass of the storm door. I skipped recording on the fifth day. On the sixth day, the front was totally thawed. The back was almost totally thawed, enough that I wasn't chicken to step onto the concrete.

We're expecting another couple of days of freezing weather, but no precipitation that could freeze and weigh down and break tree branches as in 2023. No power outage this time around, as had occurred in 2021 and 2023.

• "Feb 2021 Deep Freeze to Aftermath" article | video
• "2023 Ice 'N' Arborgeddon" article | video

2023 Ice 'N' Arborgeddon

Arborgeddon—downed limbs small and large littering just about every residence. In a nutshell, ice accumulation from freezing/thawing precipitation gave us the perfect storm.

What an experience last month! Started off Feb 1 at 4:30 AM with power outage—67 straight hours. The temperature indoors dropped down to 48 degrees. We coped with loads of layered clothing and heavy bedding. It was unsettling to restrict activities to daylight hours. (Battery conservation was important while not knowing when power would return.)

For a couple of days, consumed some non-perishable stuff. Then got cabin fever. Fortunately, roads were drivable to get to a few eateries that did have power. Ahhh, hot food and warm ambiance!

After the power came back on, assessed the fridge and freezer contents. Needed to toss out about $45 of food, mostly refrigerator stuff. The freezer food thawed to about 40 degrees, comparable to refrigerator temperature.

Happy to have power on again. For the store trek, was gun shy about buying the usual bi-weekly vittles, so bought fewer items for fridge & freezer compartments, and more room-temperature vittles.

Paid a family friend of a neighbor to get rid of five damaged cedars and loads of other debris. He and numerous other storm-damage tree people knew there was money to be made from this calamity. (Lucky that the snap-crackle-pop branches missed damaging any part of the house.)

Used a bow rake to even out ruts the tree people made when they dragged tree limbs and trunks numerous times from back to front to a chipper.

The video has still pix integrated with clips for the following sections:

1. Damage to trees and other flora, accompanied by some solid ice and icicles. The outage occurred 2/1. By the next day, ice was starting to melt (captured on some clips).
2. Cleanup, which also includes a tree worker in action
3. Some side-by-side pix for damage and post-cleanup

Couple of meaty articles:

From "10.5 million Austin trees damaged in February ice storm, Texas experts report":

An estimated 10.5 million trees in Austin were damaged as a result of this month’s ice storm — impacting 30% of the city’s total tree canopy coverage, ... data compiled by seven Texas A&M Forest Service crews as well as the agency’s Urban Forest Inventory and Analysis program. Satellite images were also used to capture the estimated extent of the damages, officials added. ... tree species most commonly impacted include live oak, Ashe juniper, cedar elm and hackberry trees. About 25% of the city’s tree canopy had sustained light damage, while 5% had moderate-to-heavy damage and 1% undergoing extensive, heavy damage.

From "'Historic' winter storm Mara recovery drags on"

The ice coated power lines and trees, knocking out electricity to at least 170,000 Austin Energy customers and thousands of Pedernales Electric Cooperative [aka PEC] members. The icy conditions also led to hundreds of car crashes in Central Texas and a boil-water notice in western Travis County.

A PEC representative said the majority of the outages were caused by ice accumulation on lines and damages from falling sheets of ice. PEC officials said Winter Storm Mara caused damage similar to what is seen with a hurricane or tornado.

BTW, the article contains images that graphically convey much info about this storm, including a table that compares 2021 storm (Uri) with this year's (Mara).

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Related: "Feb 2021 Deep Freeze to Aftermath Images" article | video