01/24/2026
I noticed over the last couple of days that when I asked various Customers and just folks that I ran into if they were prepared for the ice and potential loss of power, many responded that "they weren't worried about it since they live by a hospital / police station and they didn't lose power last time".
I figured it is worth mentioning that there are two different risks for loss of power associated with a winter storm of the magnitude that North Texas will experience this weekend.
In 2021, we experienced what we now affectionately call "Ice'Mageddon.
The risk at that time was a power grid that wasn't prepared for the demand of too many folks using high wattage heating units at the same time. That was bad, and the Utility Providers needed to institute rolling blackouts to spread out the load, leaving critical loads (hospitals/ police stations) active. ERCOT assures us that Texas is ready this time and that demand will not be an issue. That remains to be seen.
They other risk is rare and most folks in Teaxs have not seen it. I saw it in Illinois as a teenager and it was a different animal.
When you have very cold temps. coupled with continuous precipitation, like we are set to experience this weekend, you have the risk of ice accumulation not only on trees that become overloaded and break, damaging the service drops to houses and businesses, but the ice can actually accumulate on the higher voltage power lines and cause them to break.
Let's hope that will not be the case this weekend but its wise to Plan for the worst and
Hope for the best.
