Summary:
It turns out that Texas is
not the only place that has been experiencing rare winter weather over the past
few days. Over the past weekend, a winter storm has virtually slammed the
entire United States. In fact, across the country, most temperatures are
between 10 and 20 degrees below average. Temperatures have plunged below
freezing in parts of California and Nevada, including Las Vegas. Wind chills
are 40 below zero in the Midwest. Snow and ice have blanketed a swath of the
Northeast, all the way up to Maine. Philadelphia broke its record snowfall on
Sunday with more than 8 inches. In Washington, federal agencies opened two
hours late Monday due to the weather. In the Dallas-Forth Worth area, about
20,000 customers were without power Monday, according to power company Oncor.
Thousands of flights have also been canceled over the past weekend, leaving
many stranded. “It’s very unusual,” CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen said Monday.
“This literally spreads across the entire U.S., and we’re 12 days from the
official start of winter.” The winter weather has also created many dangerous
travel conditions, resulting in business and school closures in the metroplex
and around the U.S.
Analysis:
I’ve lived in Texas my entire
life, and so I know that winter weather this early on is incredibly rare. It
isn’t just rare, it is unheard of. In Texas, we are lucky if we get winter
weather at all! And when we do it is usually in January and February, but never
in December! Last year we had a white Christmas and that was very unusual, and
now this. I am just astonished. It seemed we didn’t have a very hot summer this
year, it only got above 100 a couple times, and it seems that the cold weather
has come very quickly. I love cold weather but this is insane! I wonder if we
will have any more winter storms this year. I guess we’ll just have to wait and
see!
Here is the link to my
article:
I don't think people really understand what we mean when we say that weather in Texas is bipolar. The fact that it went from a high of 79 to a high of 32 in a night, shows that there are some serious discontinuities. It'll be interesting to see exactly how long this cold weather will last.
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