Simon Burke

View of 360 frozen over looking north.

When school got cancelled for two days last week because of accumulated ice, most students celebrated the unexpected break. But while we were enjoying snow days in a city that averages freezing temperatures only about 12 days a year, it became clear when we look at the last five years that this is becoming a pattern.

Climate change doesn’t just mean hotter summers. It means more extreme weather events across the year, including severe winter storms in places that aren’t meant to have them, let alone handle them. The polar vortex, a band of cold air that typically stays locked around the Arctic but has been affecting winter weather in recent years, has been weakening due to warming temperatures in the far north. When it destabilizes, that arctic air plunges southward, bringing freezing temperatures and snow to regions like Texas that rarely experience them.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this happen. In February 2021, a similar winter storm devastated Texas, knocking out power for millions and causing over 200 deaths. The state’s infrastructure simply wasn’t designed for prolonged freezing temperatures. Five years later, we’re still experiencing the same vulnerabilities.

The science behind this is straightforward: as global temperatures rise, the jet stream, the river of air that guides weather systems across the planet, is becoming wavier and slower. This allows weather systems to stall and intensify, whether that’s heat waves in the summer or polar plunges in the winter.

Unfortunately, Austin’s infrastructure isn’t built to deal with such pressure. Our infrastructure assumes mild winters and hot summers, but that assumption is becoming outdated. Pipes aren’t insulated for hard freezes, roads aren’t equipped for ice and snow, and power grids struggle under extreme demand.

Winter storms can’t keep getting treated as a freak occurrence. In order to actually prevent these storms, we need to make Texas’ infrastructure more sustainable, from weatherising infrastructure to transitioning away from fossil fuels, the source of our changing climate.

Certainly, snow days are enjoyable. Nevertheless, they also act as a reminder. The question is whether we will take notice.