In brief: This evening’s update celebrates Houston’s first snow day in a long time, when nearly everyone did the right thing and stayed home. With a very cold night on tap we need to hang tight for a little while longer before things warm up on Wednesday.
Houston has a snow day
Y’all did amazing today. The city of Houston, alone, has more than 16,000 miles of roadway. One could drive nearly two-thirds of the way around the world in that distance. Most of those roads were iced over today with snow, sleet, slush or some other wintry mess. And according to the Houston Police Department, there were just 22 accidents today. That’s a testament to all of the people who stayed home, all of the employers who made the painful decision to close their businesses, and every other organization that stood down today. It was a special day, a true snow day, and we’re unlikely to soon forget it.
But we’re not yet done. We need everyone to stay home again this evening, tonight, and early Wednesday morning before we thaw out for real. More on the timing of this below.
How cold tonight?
I would not gamble any money on making a temperature prediction tonight. I believe most of the region will fall into a range of about 18 to 28 degrees, and it will vary widely due to a number of factors, including snow cover. Regardless, it will be the coldest night of the Arctic outbreak we have experienced so far. For reference, temperatures generally fell into the upper 20s on Monday night in Houston. So if you’re worried about pipes, this is the night for maximum preparation.
Timing of Wednesday warm-up
I’ve been watching Houston Transtar’s cameras today, and just before sunset many of the area’s freeways still looked wet. That water is going to freeze tonight. A lot of Houston’s feeder roads and side streets, which got slushy or melted on Tuesday afternoon, are going to freeze tonight. There is a phenomenon known as black ice, which occurs after snow melts on roadways and then re-freezes. This is a thin sheet of ice that, because it is transparent, may not be readily visible to drivers.
All of that to say, some of Houston’s roads may have dried up today. But many of them did not, and they will be slick tonight and on Wednesday morning. For your safety, it would really be best to preclude any travel tomorrow before late-morning. Some time between 10 am and noon air temperatures will rise above freezing, and in concert with sunny skies this should act to fairly quickly melt remaining ice on Houston’s roads.
Mobility around Houston should rapidly improve during the afternoon hours on Wednesday, with high temperatures climbing into the 40s.
Our next update will come at the usual time, on Wednesday morning. Stay warm, y’all. We’re almost through this!
Thank you for getting us through this. Y’all have done an awesome. The snow was amazing and beautiful.
Thank you again. ❄️⛄️☃️
With the dew point currently around 24F here, could we see ice fog in the morning? Haven’t seen that in 25+ years and it wasn’t in Texas.
Wont help the road but I saw today that a leaf blower breaks up the ice and blows it off. Would be good for the sidewalks and driveway at your home.
What about the Huntsville area? My husband commutes from Magnolia to Huntsville and they have decided to make him come in tomorrow. I’m very worried about it
thanks dad
Ok that’s funny
“So if you’re worried about pipes, this is the night for maximum preparation.”
So at Tue, Jan 21 at 7:37 PM if you haven’t prepared your pipes, not much you can do……how cold will it be.??
-140
Hi Sandy Wall … I think, preparation, in the context of this article, is meant to mean, do what you can now.
Some options might be
Drip faucets – of course, the city of Houston says not to, because how their system works – it will reduce water pressure.
We are on our own water well here in Magnolia, so we can drip however much we want to.
Turn the main water supply valve (to the house) off. Be sure to leave all faucets in the open position (in the house), because lingering water in the pipes can still freeze, so the open faucets will allow the water to expand within the pipes, reducing potential expansion.
Wake up every two hours and open hot and cold faucets in various rooms for about 10-20 seconds. It takes a couple hours for water to freeze in a pipe, so flowing the water will help prevent the freezing – but you have to do it every couple hours, until it’s above freezing outside
Thanks for keeping us safe!
If I my pipes bust can I move in with you?
💓 ty Eric
Spoken only as someone who grew up in the Northeast, I love what you folks have provided and the (occasional) humor with which it is dispensed. Out of my curiosity, since I grew up with an apparently different conception of what constitutes a “Blizzard”, i was amused by the repetitive description of this recent wet powdery snow event as a “Blizzard”. So, Guys, what the local meteorological definition of that word and how this storm meets the definition?