At 5 p.m. on Feb. 9, 2021, the official temperature at DFW Airport dipped below freezing. With the exception of a brief three-hour stretch, it would not eclipse 32 degrees again until 12 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 19.
While temperatures that cold – for that long – in Texas would set records no matter what, it wasn’t necessarily the snow, ice and freezing temperatures that did the most harm. It was the lack of power statewide.
Texas power grid regulators initiated what was initially called rolling blackouts early in the morning on Monday, Feb. 15.
For many Texans, the power didn’t return for days.
The storm and accompanying outages resulted in the deaths of 246 people, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, and caused $10.3 billion in damage, the Texas Department of Insurance says. In the immediate aftermath, state lawmakers called for shakeups at regulatory agencies and vowed to pass laws aimed at preventing a repeat event.
We’ve split our look back at February 2021 winter storm into a three-part podcast series looking at how it got so cold, why the power went out and what impact it had on consumers.
Episode 1: The Cold
KRLD Chief Meteorologist Dan Brounoff breaks down the elements that had to come together to bring sub-zero temperatures to North Texas and why it stayed below freezing for as long as it did.
Brounoff walks us through the first freeze and thin layer of ice that led to a deadly, 100-plus vehicle crash on Interstate 35W in Fort Worth, the ensuing snow and cold ahead of the power outage and explains that it’s not out of the question for Texas to get that cold again.
Episode 2: The Grid
In our second episode, we take a look at the power grid. Particularly why it couldn't keep up and how regulators and politicians responded. Texas Monthly senior editor Russell Gold wrote this month’s cover story for the magazine, titled “It Could Happen Again,” with a subhead that reads, “One year after the deadly blackout, Texas officials have done little to prevent the next one – which could be far worse.”
Gold, a veteran energy reporter with prior stops at Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer and San Antonio Express-News, walks us through what caused the grid to go down and why it took so long to get power back in some places.
Episode 3: The Losses
In the aftermath of the storm, many Texas consumers found themselves with costly cleanup, sky-high energy bills, or both. In our final episode, a Colleyville woman discusses the $80,000 in damage a broken pipe caused in her home, we look at the billions in insured losses across the state and the energy bills that totaled thousands of dollars for some residents.