Image taken from Houston Chronicle.
During February 14-19 of 2021, Texas was hit with a wave of unusual and powerful winter storms. Many people were left without food, drinkable water, and power, and Texas—a state not accustomed to snowy weather—was left unprepared. There are many stories of how people made it through this week, but I’m here to give you mine from Houston, Texas.
The first signs of what was to come occurred on Valentine’s Day. I spent the day inside finishing school projects and homework due that next week. At around 5 p.m., the constant sound of rain outside was replaced by hail hitting the walls of our apartment. School had already been canceled for both in-person and online, so I went to bed and was excited to wake up tomorrow morning to relax and to possibly see snow outside. It had snowed very little in Houston, with the last considerable snowfall being back in December 2017, so it was exciting to witness snow again. In retrospect, however, I should not have been as happy about the incoming cold weather.
In comparison to 2017, the freezing temperatures and heavy snow would turn out to be much worse. On the first day of the storm, my younger sister and I woke up early in the morning and prepared ourselves for the unnatural cold that awaited us outside. As we opened our door, we were greeted with snow, literally up to our doorstep. We glanced toward the parking lot of the apartment complex and saw snow and ice spread across the street, cars all across were covered in ice. Having never seen this much snow before it was a wonder to behold! As it snowed throughout that day, we were enamored by the snowflakes and excitedly took pictures of them falling or frozen stuck to car windows and saw the other children play in the snow. Later on, we went back inside where we warmed up with hot chocolate and pancakes. It was truly the most winter Houston had ever felt.
After the sun was high in the sky, we decided to go on another walk and came upon another new object brought by this unnatural weather: icicles. They were formed along the backs of cars and on the stairs of buildings, nearly touching the street. We walked to the apartment gate and saw that the street was submerged under the snow, making the speed bumps hardly noticeable. While it had snowed in 2017, that snow was only there for one day, and we still had school. In 2021, by comparison, snow and ice covered the streets for a much longer time and canceled school for one week.
After exploring outside, my sister and I spent the rest of the day in our apartment. On the first day, we still had power, but after learning the power could go out at any moment, we filled up two buckets of water using our shower. At the same time, my mom took out all the blankets she could find from storage so if we lost heat overnight, we would still be warm when we woke up the next day. We charged our portable electronics and went to bed covered in blankets.
On the second day, I prepared myself to go outside again. To my surprise, the air felt significantly colder; so cold that I could only stay outside for a short time before coming back inside to the warmth. While inside, we found ways to pass the time and by nighttime, we were hopeful that the snow would start to melt. Our predictions were proven correct when on the next day, most of the snow had melted, leaving behind puddles of water and small areas of snow that had avoided the sunlight. It finally looked like things were going back to normal, until the power went out in the evening.
Thankfully, our apartment remained warm because we kept the heater on throughout the day. As a way to pass the time without using our phones, I pulled out a set of playing cards, and my sister and I played a game on the diner table by lantern light. It was really fun to play card games again because it brought out the competitive nature in both of us. With the power out, the toilet did not flush, so we used our buckets of water to flush the toilet water down after each of us used it. After a couple of games, we went to bed and slept under layers of blankets; which kept us warm the whole night.
The next day, I woke up feeling cozy, but I instantly regretted getting out of bed. For the first time, on the fourth day of this experience, the cold was overwhelming. Since we had not experienced the cold head-on, it was an eye-opening event to go through. We did not go anywhere in our apartment without being covered in sweaters and blankets that day. I spent most of the day under my own blankets, only getting up when necessary. When it was time to eat, we enjoyed our pan dulce, a Mexican pastry that we had bought just before it froze. Thankfully, by now the roads had melted, and we made a quick grocery run to buy water and extra food. We also needed a way to charge our phones because we eventually used them, despite knowing we should not have; making my school laptop a portable charger for my family’s devices. Day four ended just how it started: under the warm embrace of blankets.
In the late morning of day five, the power finally returned to the apartment. The heater slowly warmed everything back up, and we all returned to our normal routine of staring at screens.
I call this experience the Texas Freeze, or the more alliterative version the February Freeze, due to the intense cold weather. It was very interesting to experience snow and ice for the first time because this is not a regular occurrence for Houston or Texas as a whole. I feel grateful and lucky to have experienced only one day without power. I know that the aftermath of this weather for others who live in Houston was devastating. I’m hoping that future storms are less catastrophic or are at least handled better by state officials after seeing the damage caused to millions because Texas was unprepared for the winter storm.
December 8th, 2017. The snow only lasted a day despite being a bigger amount.
February 15, 2021. It looks like less snow but it was the most snow we've ever gotten.