February 13–17, 2021 North American Winter Storm (Blog Update #13)

This winder storm, also known as Winter Storm Uri, was a widespread winter storm that reached into as far south as Mexico and caused widespread problems across the south.

The storm place 170 million under winter weather alerts and left almost 10 million Americas and Mexicans under a blackout.

Snow at a Kroger grocery store in Far North Dallas. Courtesy: Shistorybuff

This would be the largest blackout in the UnitedStates since the Northeast blackout in 2003. The storm was accompanied by extremely cold temperatures that caused pipes to freeze in people's homes due to not having in power to heat homes.

At least 136 people died because of this winter storm. Damages to the power grids in many states, especially Texas, was estimated to cost $195 billion making the system the costliest natural disaster in the state of Texas and the United States.

Satellite image of Houston, Texas on February 7 (left) before the storm of areas of electricity. Curtesy: NASA

Satellite image of Houston, Texas on Feb 16 (right) after the storm. The dark patches in the latter image depict areas left without electricity. Courtesy: NASA

Here is a video of some of the damage caused by the winter storm in Texas.