Two weeks ago, Dallas breathed out a triumphant chuckle when the massive winter storm that promised to encase the city in ice and smother all signs of life arrived instead as a chilly but gentle rain. No way would the weather gods have the chutzpah to mess with the Big…
The summer of 2011 will go down as one of the hottest, driest years on record. Heat drove Texans to their thermostats and the electric grid to the brink of rolling blackouts. Tuesday, with those unbelievable temperatures in mind, grid managers convened to discuss whether they should raise the target…
It’s that time of year again, when the feds single out Texas’ precariously thin power reserves. Even California — a state not known for electrical reliability — is projected to experience fewer problems with its power grid as the summer heat drives residents to their thermostats. A reserve margin is…
Last fall, I drove down to the Calvary Church of Granbury, a Pentecostal congregation in the little town southwest of Fort Worth that was devastated by last night’s tornadoes. It’s a tiny building with vivid green carpet, next to an empty field and just up a narrow country road from…
First, a bit of background. There’s a giant banana-shaped car making its way across the country right now. It’s official name is the Big Banana Car, and it’s the brainchild of a Brit named Steve Braithwaite who, along with his brother, is “making a documentary film about building a huge…
As day breaks in North Texas, residents are surveying the devastation wreaked by last night’s storms. Dallas escaped the worst of it. The tornado sirens by our place just south of White Rock got going around 9 p.m. and kept on for a half hour, but we saw nothing but…
It’s freezing in New York–where the hell is global warming?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2013 It’s cold this morning. Not quite freezing like in New York, but it’s 40 degrees. In North Texas. In late April. It’s a little odd, a bit of a surprise. Less surprising: That…
Just in case all this temperate whether has lulled you into the perception that the Texas power grid doesn’t have the thinnest margin of safety between lights on and lights out anywhere in the country, here’s a reminder: Summer is coming. ERCOT, the grid operator for most of Texas, says…
Last winter was a godsend. After surviving the driest year in Texas history, we got one of the wettest winters on record. Since April, though, North Texas has been racking up rain deficits, according to the National Weather Service’s winter outlook. October was drier than usual, and November saw virtually…
You might have already figured this out given the perennial threat of rolling blackouts and grid operator ERCOT’s own admission that, come 2013, there won’t be sufficient wattage to cover peak demand, but the state’s electrical grid isn’t the best. In fact, as the Texas Tribune reports today, it’s the…
Texas electricity regulators voted today to raise the price cap on wholesale electricity from $3,000 to $4,500 per megawatt hour — the equivalent of powering roughly 330 homes for one hour — by Aug. 1. It’s only June and already the electrical grid is being tested by record peak demand,…
If you are a roof, a delicate glass sculpture or one of the cars stuck in the open because of the assholes who took shelter under one of the overpasses on Central, yesterday was not a good day. Days usually aren’t when you’re pelted with chunks of ice the size…
It happened in Coppell. You can probably guess when. Video is unsafe for work, presuming your boss isn’t big on F-bombs…
The storms have moved on, but chaos is hanging around for another day: According to Oncor, some 4,000 people are still without power across the ‘plex. NBCDFW reports that about 300 homes were damaged or destroyed in Lancaster, while an AP report from this morning says there were another 650…
As the region cleans up from yesterday’s case of the swirlies, we were happy to learn that our go-to storm chaser, Justin Terveen, wasn’t swept into the sky. (Although that would have made for a cool shot.) He sent over the photo above, which you’ll want to click to embiggen…
In the meantime, take cover, marvel at Mother Nature’s latest moves in the videos below, and be on the look out for a Justin Terveen-shaped man flying past your office window, click-click-clicking away. Also, if you want to stay up to date, KXT is covering it blow by blow, including…
If there’s a storm over Dallas, local photographer Justin Terveen is spending the night chasing it, and we’re spending the morning chasing Terveen down so we can deliver his camera magic unto you, the Slightly Damp Friends of Unfair Park. Terveen reports that the shot up top is of DPD’s…
With the release of its latest map this morning, the U.S. Drought Monitor made it official: A few weeks’ worth of heavy rain have officially removed Dallas-Fort Worth from the historic drought that has most of the state bone-dry. (Watch the 12-week animation here.) And per the AP’s breaking-news sounder:…
Speaking of energizing downtown Dallas ….The storms that moved through, oh, an hour ago are but a prelude of the downpour to come. And if there’s electricity in the air, Justin Terveen’s there to catch it, as always. He just sent this freshly minted postcard, along with the note that…
A few days back the great Alan Melson, KERA’s director of interactive, directed his Facebook friends to a great weather-geek (said with all due respect) site where folks are currently having a great debate about whether or not signs point to an icy deep freeze headed toward North Texas toward…
It’s all but official now. We’ve strung together the 12 driest months in Texas history. State climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon estimates we got 13.69 inches for the year. The average is 27. It’s been hell on ranchers, as we reported in this week’s cover story. And it may get worse. Texas…
Things all went wrong for Renee so recently she can still count the days: 32. That’s how long it’s been since she lost her job, her car was repossessed and her house was foreclosed on. “Everything just fell apart so quickly,” she says.She’s in her mid-40s with bright green eyes…
