Used to mild temperatures, the Texans remained, Tuesday, February 16, under the influence of an icy thermometer, which fell to – 12 ° C in their capital, Austin, in the morning. That is to say a dip compared to the low average for February in this city (7.2 ° C) and even compared to the temperature recorded at the same time in Anchorage in… Alaska (- 7 ° C).
To prevent the entire system from overheating because of a peak in demand, the electricity companies have been making partial cuts since this weekend in this large state in the south of the United States. More than 3.5 million homes and businesses were without power Tuesday night, according to the Poweroutage.us site.
President Joe Biden on Sunday signed a declaration of emergency for Texas, providing federal assistance to supplement local relief.
About twenty deaths, according to the media
Besides Texas, nearly 600,000 people are without power across Oregon, Louisiana, Kentucky and West Virginia, according to Poweroutage.us. In Mississippi, the inhabitants woke up to discover the landscapes of this other southern state covered in snow and ice. The authorities were slow to clear the roads, snowplows not being common and usually little used. Further north, Chicago lived under a thick blanket of snow, residents trying to free their cars.
“Frigid air and dangerously cold winds will persist in the great plains” in the heart of the United States “And the Mississippi Valley until the middle of the week”, the National Meteorological Service (NWS) warned on Tuesday. “A new winter storm will appear on Tuesday in the southern plains. ” More than 20 deaths have been linked to bad winter weather according to US media, and authorities have urged Americans to be careful.
At least four tornadoes
The “Spectacular cold snap that hit the continental United States is linked to the combination of an arctic high carrying freezing temperatures and a very active depression, with waves of precipitation”, explained the NWS Monday. These extreme conditions caused the formation of at least four tornadoes, according to the specialized site Weather.com, one of which fell in the middle of the night in the southeastern United States, in North Carolina, killing three people and causing ten injured. “It will take time to recoverBrunswick County Rescue Service Manager Edward Conrow told reporters, saying they were no longer looking for the missing. We did receive a tornado alert from the National Weather Service but by then the storm was already hitting. “
NWS officials were “Very surprised by the speed with which the storm got stronger” and “At this hour of the night”, just before midnight, “When most people are at home in bed, it creates a very dangerous situation”. In all, about 50 homes were damaged and power cables cut, according to the county emergency services.
