Temperatures crashed down Sunday night behind the cold front with much of the area getting down into the teens or single digits with wind chills down into the single digits or even below zero. Roads began to become impassable through the region Sunday evening due to ice and snow and some would not become safe until Friday. Thunder snow was reported near the town of Snook, Burleson County Sunday evening, and then thunder sleet occurred near the Brazoria and Galveston counties coastline Sunday night. On Sunday, every square inch of Texas was in a Winter Storm Warning. Snow, sleet, and freezing rain began to encroach into Southeast Texas Sunday afternoon, and then increased in coverage and intensity overnight Sunday night into Monday. It served as the turning point from a significant winter storm the preceded the front to the historic winter event that would eventually unfold. A Winter Storm Warning ended up getting issued on Saturday, February 13th for Colorado, Austin, Waller, Montgomery, San Jacinto, Polk counties and for counties north as sleet and freezing rain formed ahead of the approaching cold front. The counties that remained in the Winter Storm Watch ( Jackson, Wharton, Fort Bend, Harris, and Liberty counties and the other counties along the coast) got upgraded to a Warning for Sunday.Īs expected, the strong Arctic cold front passed through Southeast Texas on Sunday (Valentine's Day). On Friday, February 12th, a Winter Storm Watch was issued for the entire region for Sunday in anticipation for the potential snow, sleet, and freezing rain that this Arctic front would bring. While this first taste of winter precipitation was impacting the region, a stronger Arctic cold front was progressing through the country and was expected to reach Southeast Texas late Sunday. This Advisory would end up getting expanded to include Washington and Grimes counties after sunset that evening and continued through Friday morning due to lingering precipitation. The first Winter Weather Advisory of this prolonged winter event was issued in the morning hours of Thursday, February 11th for Burleson, Brazos, and Madison counties as area roads began to become hazardous from the icy precipitation.
With this cold air in place, lingering precipitation the following day fell as sleet and freezing rain across the northwestern counties. It all began Wednesday, February 10th when a cold front moved through the area bringing the first surge of cold air into the region. While the damage is still being assessed, this will likely go down as the first billion dollar disaster of 2021 globally, and potentially the most costly weather disaster for the state of Texas in history, surpassing even Hurricane Harvey from 2017. This was one of the most impactful winter events in recent history that brought multiday road closures, power outages, loss of heat, broken pipes, and other societal impacts for the region. The Winter Outbreak that occurred on Valentine's Week 2021 brought not only snow, sleet, and freezing rain to Southeast Texas, but also extreme cold temperatures that lasted for several days.
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