Blazing winds, sweltering cold, power outages — what can we expect from the Texas winter this year? Recently, Texas winters have increased in severity, resulting in electricity outages and the Texas power grid’s unsustainability. 

Texas has a co-dependent power grid and natural gas production on its land which leads to frequent loss of power and no way to easily transmit electricity to shelter the millions of civilians living in Texas. The 2021 winter storm landed as the top power outage of that year because electricity struggled to perform under freezing temperatures. Residents are taking precautions for the winter by limiting their electricity and natural gas usage, which was advised by the Texas government. But there have not been any significant changes like winterization to the grid according to The Texas Tribune.

Many Hockaday families were impacted last winter. Freshman Zoee Shepherd’s electricity went out due to this storm as one of the millions of Texans to lose power. While freshman Avery McGowan’s pipes burst, causing her room to be flooded, taking months to be fixed. 

Although the catastrophic effects of the frigid temperatures deeply affected last year’s winter, students are still looking forward to the cold temperatures during the winter of 2022.

For senior Lauren Li, it is a great change from the year-round heat that Texas receives. And junior Yalda Haghighat has so much love for the freezing temperatures throughout Texas’s winter.

Texas is known for its stagnating weather, with temperatures ranging from winter to summer in less than 24 hours. But Texans should expect temperatures in the low 20 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the national weather service. 

AP environmental science teacher Jessie Crowley is going to teach her students this school year about global warming, which has a large impact on the weather and climate we experience during all seasons of the year.

“The weather we experience day to day, like during our Texas winters, may be harder to predict because of climate change and global warming,” Crowley said.