AUSTIN, Texas — This January has gotten off to a clear and mild start but, as we all know, here in Central Texas a 75-degree winter day can turn to below freezing in just a few hours. And that's exactly what happened around this time nine years ago.
It was one of the wildest weather weeks of the new century in Central Texas – an Arctic cold front that wouldn't go away. When it arrived, high winds caused heavy damage in the Hill Country outside Austin.
"The winds that roared through early Tuesday morning ripped the entire roof off this fuel store. In fact, they were so strong, they blew this ice machine all the way across the street," KVUE's Quita Culpepper reported.
In Austin, the temperature plunged from nearly 70 degrees on a Monday to 17 degrees by Tuesday. And the thermometer was stuck below freezing for the next four days.
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A new phrase entered the Central Texas vocabulary that year: rolling blackouts. Electricity demand spiked as the cold weather struck, setting a wintertime record for usage. As several power plants around the state failed, Central Texans faced ongoing electric blackouts as the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) cut off power across the region, neighborhood by neighborhood.
Then the rains came – freezing rain that coated the area with ice, paralyzing traffic and closing schools. The Weather Service reported over 250 ice-related wrecks in Austin alone.
And as if that weren't enough: snow! Just enough to keep the lid on temperatures and add to the misery of many.
By day five, it was still cold but the sun came out and that drew hundreds to the hill near Murchison Middle School in northwest Austin. It was a cool way to get back outside and celebrate the end of the "Big Chill of 2011."
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