A brutal blast of cold, winter weather this week killed at least 14 people in four U.S. states, dropped snow and ice on an area from Texas to New England, took 34,000 megawatts of power offline in Texas, drove wholesale electricity rates up by more than 10,000%—and prompted a brief, inevitable burst of complaints directed at the state’s wind farms, before it became clear that most of the missing electricity was from the state’s gas plants.
The severe cold snap “turned the central and southern parts of the country into an extension of the Arctic, with dangerously low temperatures not seen in decades and a blast of snow and ice which has shut down population centres in multiple states,” the Washington Post reported Monday. “The excessive cold has sent energy demand skyrocketing. In Texas, 4.3 million customers were without electricity as of 8:45 PM Eastern, according to poweroutage.us, ahead of what was expected to be one of the state’s coldest nights on record, with most areas falling to the single digits (Fahrenheit) or lower.”
Sunday marked the first time the entire state of Texas had been placed under a winter storm warning, the Post added. The storm produced “nearly impossible driving conditions and hundreds of vehicle accidents,” while closing airports in Houston and Austin as well as the Houston Ship Channel. “Officials urged residents not to travel, as social media videos proliferated of cars and trucks sliding down roads out of control.”
The warnings ultimately extended to 40 states, and major storm conditions were expected for another 36 hours.
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