Sure... but this winter blast has neither led to significant icing or snow, and the entire city made the decision to close yesterday afternoon (not the case in 2011). Its really not as bad as driving through some of the significant thunderstorms/rainy days here that don't shut down the entire city.
There's more accidents in this kind of weather though. Last week there was lots of video of cars just sliding into one another or into concrete dividers for no reason other than inexperienced driving in these conditions. The city was more prepared for this freeze than last week's. They had just treated roads days ago, so I'd imagine after another round of it the roads were better/more treated than last week. If there was less rain today, than last week, it wasn't by much and the temperatures just hovered over freezing. I think officials knew it would be close and they just decided to be cautious. I wouldn't call that a big forecast fail and definitely not the biggest. Wouldn't Hurricane Rita easily beat this?
Spoiler alert: weather forecasts aren't perfect. Based on the information they had 24 hours ago, I don't blame anyone for calling today a weather day and moving on.
Less of a forecast fail, more of a morons in Katy evacuating fail. They are the ones that clogged the freeways.
Telling you right now..I live on the west side of Houston..not Katy...and another hurricane tracking towards Houston at that size is forecast to head this way (the same way Rita was) and I'm hauling my ass out of town again. Hell, after two weeks of no power after Ike, I'm hauling out regardless. The storm is one thing...the period after with no power is worse. I can work remotely from my in-laws' place in Little Rock and be just fine. No thanks.
I don't blame the botched forecasts... I blame the premature closures. There is no perfect system (as if they wait too long, people are on the road unnecessarily), but today's weather was not worse than most thunderstorms here. Don't see why they can't use the midnight deadline... because as of midnight last night, it was clear that this weather wasn't going to be as bad as they had originally forecasted.
Leave after the storm if you don't have power. Your life isn't in danger. Better yet, get a generator and don't worry about it at all.
As of midnight...actually, as of 5 am, it didn't look so bad in Central Texas. Then...it was. There were something like 300 reported accidents this morning in the Austin area. Round Rock ISD, as I mentioned this morning, took your line of thinking and waited because it didn't look so bad. Then, they closed the district at 9:15...nearly 2 hours after the first elementary kids arrived at school (including my son). Luckily, I work from home and we live 100 yds from the school. Getting him there and then home wasn't nearly as dangerous as it was for the many other parents, students, and staff (though I did slip on some ice and nearly split myself). I wish RRISD would have take a much more cautious approach and at least called a delay well before people hit the roads this morning.
The price you pay for living in central texas, where weather is far less predictable given the intersecting jet streams. Yes, I agree there is no perfect system. I just feel sometimes weather reports are "sensationalized" which drives erroneous decision making (now more than ever).
i'm trying to remember how much damage a cat 5 of that size was projected to cause over the city. I would think West Houston would still be in trouble because of cat 3/4 winds after landfall.
At my relatives they keep on forgetting to shovel the driveway all the way to the street so twice this winter I've had to go over there with a spade and an axe to break up the ice wall that forms when the plow comes through.
It was still sleeting in The Woodlands at 3:30 today with temperatures 33-34 degrees. We never thawed out and now everything is re-freezing. I'm not saying its a disaster but it was actually worse than the forecast as far as duration of freezing precipitation and cold temperatures.
It's better to be safe than sorry. I was a senior in high school during the 2011 event and school was closed that day. Good thing, too since everything was very iced over.
Dude you're probably my favorite poster on this board, but every winter you turn into Mr. Weather-One-Upper.
So guys I was walking out of my apartment earlier and right as I stepped down to go down the stairs I slip on some ice and slide all the way down... Luckily nobody saw this as it was probably the most embarrassing thing I have ever done. The worst part is the exact same thing happened to me on Friday!!!
imagine if Houston got the amount of snow that Atlanta got today...crazy http://www.businessinsider.com/atlanta-traffic-jam-pictures-2014-1
[Paging da1] Heard Greg Anthony say that he took the train from the airport to the studios. Point being, a good rail system can be great in an event like this.
