Every county in Texas was covered by an advisory for winter weather on Tuesday morning. Some counties in the Panhandle were under Extreme Cold Warnings with wind chills forecast as low as 37 degrees below zero. In Southeast Texas, Beaumont was under a Blizzard Warning.
In North Texas, some areas along the Red River may not rise above freezing on Tuesday. In Dallas-Fort Worth, temperatures were expected to reach the mid-30s but then drop to the low 20s Tuesday night with wind chills as low as six degrees.
After several consecutive days of cold weather, plumbing, and electric companies are planning for a spike in calls for service during the cold.
"You don't want your HVAC system to fail right in the middle of a cold spell," David Butler, master plumber at Milestone Home Services, said.
He said people should keep their thermostats at least 68 degrees, both to stay warm but also protect pipes. Butler urged people to keep cabinet doors open so the heat reaches indoor pipes.
"We need the heat, also, because if you don't have the house heated well, then you run into problems with the pipes freezing," he said.
Butler said homeowners could cover and insulate outdoor pipes. To protect indoor pipes, he urged people to run both hot and cold water.
"We've always said leave your faucets dripping, but dripping's really not enough. It needs to be a steady stream of water flowing out of your faucet, both hot and cold," he said. "If it's a single lever faucet, you can put it in the middle and just have a little larger stream going."
Dallas-Fort Worth last reached 40 degrees Saturday. Butler said the cumulative effect of a long cold spell can lead to even more calls.
"That's when we really start running into problems because at that point in time, all that heat starts dissipating out of our pipes, and then they freeze very quickly," he said. "Our houses aren't built for that. Up north in Ohio, they don't put plumbing in exterior walls. It's in the basement and under the floors. They don't put it in the attics. We have it in the attics, exterior walls and everywhere you shouldn't have in freezing weather."
Butler urged homeowners to make sure they know how to shut off their water at the meter in case a pipe bursts. He says your city or fire department will respond if a pipe breaks, but during a cold weather event, they may respond slowly because of the number of calls coming in at once.
"We do answer the phones and try to make sure we can help anybody with advice," he said. "We try to get there as quickly as we can, but we're not able to get there as quickly as, sometimes, you'd need us."
Milestone has a video showing how to shut off water at your meter on its website.
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