Dear Yankee Dum Fuqs: It's ice, not snow in Texas

I wasn't born in Tex-ass, nor, contra the Tex-ass immigrant cultist saying, did I get here as fast as I could. And, for the right position in the right location, I'd leave. (That said, I could be in a lot worse places.)

That said, the Yankees laughing at Texans over their driving in the recent ice storm, and related cluelessness, is too much. My locales before getting here include St. Louis and Michigan. I've driven on plenty of snow, and have driven on enough bits of snow in North Texas, that I haven't entirely forgotten that. Now, in part it's due to how long I've lived here, but I've driven on more ice here than all other places combined.

First, per the header, it's ice, not snow. Yes, there are some dum fuq drivers here either driving too fast for conditions, or being Texas yahoos. (And don't get me started on people driving without their daytime running lights in general, let alone in bad weather.) If the header doesn't convince you, ice going all the way down to greater Austin, per the pic at left, from Pflugerville, will hopefully do the trick.

But? Many people have simply been trying to do their best to get around, and not always being fully successful.

Monday-Tuesday, on precipitation, all we had in my neck of the Tex-ass woods was either sleet or freezing rain. Those combine well to become ice.

The street in front of my office was a pebble-grained sheet of ice yesterday.

One of the "gotcha" attempts on Twitter was by a person called "FROSun Liberal." I quote tweeted her, and I see that now she's deleted:

I didn't vote 4 either Abbott OR Beto, aka R(ump) F(uck) O'Rourke. Ice storms happen here in Tex-ass cuz of this big thing called the Gulf of Mexico combined with North America, unlike Europe or Asia, not having a major east-west mtn range. Feel free 2 bring more science nxt time https://t.co/ioq15LAhbH

— TheRealSocraticGadfly (@real_gadfly) February 1, 2023

Maybe a small bit of guilty conscience on deleting her tweet?

Or maybe not. 

She was also saying this was comeuppance for Abbott being governor.

Anyway, as far as the meteorology? Yes, ice storms happen in the plains because of that geography. Ditto on tornadoes, and it's a factor in Gulf hurricanes. It's why North America has the most and most varied severe weather of any continent.

Second, as far as 340K people being without power as of the time I was typing this Wednesday evening? No, that's not good, but, some perspective? In a state of nearly 30 million, that's 1.1 percent of the population. Ice storms up north do worse. And again, nothing to do with Abbott.

Third? Texas does use salt, at least down as far south as Austin. (City of Austin uses only dolomite crushed stone for grit, not salt.) And, that includes pre-treating roads in advance of storms with brine.

Fourth? I hadn't thought of that new play on the name of Beto-Bob until yesterday.

Fifth? #BlueAnon gotchas on something like this are like Kos himself, Markos Moulitsas, saying "poor whites" in red states had earned their COVID deaths.