As millions of Texans tremble in day four of state power outages, many struggle to access food and water, as officials play the blame game and weather satellites display weird readings.
At least 25 deaths have been attributed to the recent cold snap that caused record-breaking snowfall in Lone Star State, resulting in frozen or broken water pipes and subsequent disruptions to water supplies, such as the shared residents on social media.
Demand for 75,000 megawatts on Tuesday was met up to 55,500 megawatts, which is a massive failure in the state’s energy infrastructure, leading many officials to point the finger at each other, including Texas Governor Greg Abbott , who called on the leaders of network operators to resign.
Regulators and other authorities responsible for the state’s energy infrastructure are to be dragged out before a hearing next Thursday.
Meanwhile, the GOES-East satellite, which uses infrared sensors to measure cloud cover and plot cloud structure over the continental United States, has been deceived by the sudden cold snap.
The cold was so intense that weather satellites began to confuse the ground with cloud cover, which is usually much cooler than surface temperatures at ground level.
It’s incredible.
That bleeding purple in the south you see is not clouds – extreme #cold grows as night begins, tricking the satellites #Texas and #Oklahoma thinking there are clouds.
The average temperature in Texas last week was between 16 and 34 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the five-year average for this time of year, causing problems for the satellite’s algorithm, which represented the ground as cloud cover. (in purple and blue).
Cold weather in North America confused the GOES East weather satellite! See here how the cold northern front made him imagine the cold ground as if it were clouds on February 16.
The cold snap is currently affecting some 30 states, with temperatures 50 degrees Fahrenheit below normal.
US President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in Texas on Sunday, but 14 other states across the country also face the grim prospect of power outages.
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Texas braces for water and cellular outages as massive power outage leaves millions freezing in the dark ahead of second snowstorm
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