Texas-I just don't get it

Batjack

Cap`n Jack 1313
yes sir. have blackstone and all is good !
I ain't pulled the trigger on a blackstone ...yet. I do have a griddle that works good on my gas or charcoal grills and enough full 25 & 100lb. propane bottles to be on someone's watch list.
 

Bigbendgyrene

Senior Member
Describing Texas as one spot doesn't begin to do its scope justice. Having lived in Lubbock three years while my wife did a residency with Texas Tech, it really is more like a nation than a state, and a quite geographically diverse one at that.

People in Lubbock were the most conservative and nicest people I've ever known (and I was raised in South Carolina, not exactly a liberal bastion)... yet, despite having wide open land for darn near 200 miles in all directions almost all home lots, even for super-nice homes, were on cookie-cutter parcels with little space beyond home walls and the walls of neighboring homes. And outside river canyon areas there are extremely few sizable trees. The realtor who showed us the home we bought joked it was "heavily wooded" as it had a whopping 3 crepe myrtle sized trees.

So... not exactly lots of firewood sources around. But more worth noting, the typical lowest temps they see even in the North Texas town of Lubbock range between 20 to 29 degrees. Teen temps are rare -- think we only saw them briefly one single morning in our 3 years living there.

As for this week? The prior coldest temp for Valentine's Day was 8 degrees and recorded exactly 70 years ago. This year? The low was zero, and they saw 5 consecutive days with single degree record-breaking low temps and highs only approaching the low-teens to 20s.

Very, very unusually cold weather. Trying to compare it to anything close to normal snow storms is kind of like comparing what folks who've gone through an intense cat 5 hurricane experience in comparison to a cat 1 or cat 2 hurricane. Not extremely hard to prepare for the consequences of a cat 1 or cat 2 hurricane, but a cat 5 is a whole different ball of wax.
 
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The Original Rooster

Mayor of Spring Hill
Describing Texas as one spot doesn't begin to do its scope justice. Having lived in Lubbock three years while my wife did a residency with Texas Tech, it really is more like a nation than a state, and a quite geographically diverse one at that.

People in Lubbock were the most conservative and nicest people I've ever known (and I was raised in South Carolina, not exactly a liberal bastion)... yet, despite having wide open land for darn near 200 miles in all directions almost all home lots, even for super-nice homes, were on cookie-cutter lots with little space beyond home walls and the walls of neighboring homes. And outside river canyon areas there are extremely few sizable trees. The realtor who showed us the home we bought joked it was "heavily wooded" as it had a whopping 3 crepe myrtle sized trees.

So... not exactly lots of firewood sources around. But more worth noting, the typical lowest temps they see even in the North Texas town of Lubbock range between 20 to 29 degrees. Teen temps are rare -- think we only saw them briefly one single morning in our 3 years living there.

As for this week? The prior coldest temp for Valentine's Day was 8 degrees and recorded exactly 70 years ago. This year? The low was zero, and they saw 5 consecutive days with single degree record-breaking low temps and highs only approaching the low-teens to 20s.

Very, very unusually cold weather. Trying to compare it to anything close to normal snow storms is kind of like comparing what folks who've gone through an intense cat 5 hurricane experience in comparison to a cat 1 or cat 2 hurricane. Not extremely hard to prepare for the consequences of a cat 1 or cat 2 hurricane, but a cat 5 is a whole different ball of wax.
A firsthand perspective gives a better picture of why this is having the effect it has. Thanks @Bigbendgyrene for posting this.
 

GeorgiaBob

Senior Member
Texas,
it really is more like a nation than a state, and a quite geographically diverse one at that

Nailed it.

Perspective - Texarkana Texas is closer to Chicago, IL than El Paso, TX. El Paso is closer to San Diego, CA than Houston, TX.

When I was 3 years old it snowed almost 3 feet in a single night Lubbock, TX. It was so cold that all trains were stopped and all aircraft grounded for 5 days. (My parents saved the newspaper clippings.)

In the mid 1960s there was a freak storm in Dallas that dropped 10 inches of snow along with temperatures below zero. Two days later the afternoon high temp was 78.

One winter in the 1970s it got so cold that Copano Bay (not far from Corpus Christi) actually froze over for three days.

In the 1980s, I had to drive from downtown Dallas to Corsicana on a 2 inch thick sheet of ice that covered everything, including roads. With temps ranging between 6 and 14 degrees, the roads were impossible to clear for four days. A week later Dallas set a record HIGH temperature for that date!(Yes, I got there. No, I didn't bounce off of anything along the way. No, I wouldn't do it again.)

Texas has about five distinct and diverse climate areas (or zones) and all of them are subject to extreme fluctuations in weather. It has been that way at least as long as humans have lived in that area.

The real difference today is that media is desperate to broadcast sensationalized stories!
 

toolmkr20

Senior Member
My wife has a good friend in Austin. At 35-yrs old, they are absolutely loaded. Just built a half million dollar house and paid cash. They spent 15k on a custom walk-in wine thingy. They built two fireplaces. Only had one little decorative stack of wood. Three days in, they packed up and left because they couldn't stand staying in there house at 55 degrees. :huh::huh:

Sounds like a family that has more money than sense.
 

AugustaDawg

Senior Member
tenor.png
Picture with your sig line made me laugh. Thanks!
 

sleepr71

Senior Member
The news said it was coming. This is like Katrina hitting New Orleans. Folks have once again sat on their hind ends...thinking the govt will come & save them! Only ones I feel sorry for are the kids & old folks who can’t physically get out & prepare. Let them enjoy their Solar Panels & Wind Turbines...and burning their furniture to stay warm...???
 

oldfella1962

Senior Member
Everything is bigger in Texas, until you been to Alaska

HA! Lived in Alaska for about 18 months - it's like being in another country. The Siberian part of Russia would be a pretty good comparison.

I have drive across Texas a few times - it's very discouraging on a four day Georgia to Arizona trip and two of the days is just getting across Texas. :mad:

When I was stationed in Korea the first time I had a "special duty" riding around with Koreans packing up and shipping off household goods for soldiers moving back to the U.S. Some of the Koreans spoke English, and one of them asked me just how big the U.S. really was. I think he asked me how many countries like South Korea could fit into it. I started thinking about it but it was taking a while, so he said "how about just Texas?"

I told him about six or seven maybe. So he said "no, not how many in the United States, how many just in Texas?" When I told him I was talking about Texas he was amazed. He told his Korean buddy driving the truck what I told him and he was equally amazed. I wish I had a globe at the time so I could have showed them just how huge Texas was.
 
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