The winter storm that raged across the country this month was one that the central parts of the U.S. will remember for years to come. While some of the states are used to warmer temperatures, they experienced “lows not felt in a century or more” like Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (with temperatures around -14), and Fayetteville, Arkansas (with about -20 temperatures). Especially in Texas, there were more than 3.5 million outages, leaving the citizens living there “without power for hours or even days in freezing temperatures”(“Major Snowstorm to Impact 100 Million People across Midwest and Northeast”). Those that were hit by the storm from the Midwest to the Northeast had some cities being “buried in up to 18 inches of snow”(“Major Snowstorm to Impact 100 Million People across Midwest and Northeast”). It rained about 15 inches and close to or over 100 inches of snow in California alone. Even before the storm hit the state of Texas, they had “natural gas shortages were already limiting power generation” across the state of Texas (Levenson). Though we here have gotten snow as well, it is nothing compared to what the Midwest was dealing with when it comes to outages and the record low temperatures that were mentioned earlier.
Though it is uncertain what the total accumulation was, according to the National Weather Service, between 7:56 a.m. and 8:56 a.m. the morning of February 22, 2021, there was heavy snow in Pennsylvania. Around 9:65 a.m, about an hour later, a freezing fog was added on top of the still heavy snowfall. It wasn’t until about 12:56 p.m. that there was no longer any snow falling, but was left with some fog or mist.
Works Cited:
“Extreme Winter Weather Causes U.S. Blackouts.” Earth Observatory, 19 Feb. 2021, earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147941/extreme-winter-weather-causes-us- blackouts.
Levenson, Michael, et al. “Power Is Still Off for Millions After Winter Storm.” The New York Times, 17 Feb. 2021, www.nytimes.com/live/2021/02/16/us/winter-storm-weather-live.
“Major Snowstorm to Impact 100 Million People across Midwest and Northeast.” CBS News, 31 Jan. 2021, www.cbsnews.com/news/snow-winter-storm-midwest-northeast-2021- 01-31.
“National Weather Service : Observed Weather for Past 3 Days : Harrisburg, Harrisburg International Airport.” Weather Observations for the Past 3 Days, 22 Feb. 2021, w1.weather.gov/data/obhistory/KMDT.html.
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