February 13–17, 2021 North American winter storm



Satellite imagery of the winter storm over the Eastern United States on February 16

Formed: February 13, 2021
Dissipated: February 24, 2021; (Exited to sea on February 17, 2021)
Fatalities: 299 officially confirmed; 426–978 estimated in Texas
Damage: ≥ $196.5 billion (2021 USD); (Costliest winter storm on record)
Power outages: > 9,924,000
Areas affected: Pacific Northwest, Western United States, Southern United States, Eastern United States, Northern Mexico, Eastern Canada, British Isles, Iceland, Southern Greenland

The February 13–17, 2021 North American winter storm, unofficially referred to as Winter Storm Uri by the Weather Channel, was a major winter and ice storm that had widespread impacts across the United States, Northern Mexico, and parts of Canada from February 13 to 17. The storm started out in the Pacific Northwest and quickly moved into the Southern United States, before moving on to the Midwestern and Northeastern United States a couple of days later.

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Central and Southern Plains

See also: 2021 Texas power crisis and February 2021 North American cold wave

With the threat of icing, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) pre-treated roadways, using a brine-salt mix, across six Southeast Texas counties. For the first time on record, the National Weather Service (through its 13 regional offices serving Texas and adjoining portions of Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas and Louisiana) issued Winter Storm Warnings for all 254 counties in the state.

On February 14–15, the storm dropped prolific amounts of snow across Texas and Oklahoma. As a result of the winter storm and a concurrent cold wave, power grids—unable to sustain the higher-than-normal energy and heating demand from residential and business customers—failed across the Texas Interconnection; at the peak of the outages, at least 4.5 million Texas residents were left without electricity. Two of the electricity reliability commissions servicing the Southern U.S., the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), ordered rolling blackouts for 14 states amid the frigid temperatures, in an attempt to manage the strain on the power grid and prevent widespread, long-duration blackouts. The controlled outages were initiated after the Southwest Power Pool declared Level 3 Emergency Energy Alerts on both February 15 and 16; the SPP and ERCOT faced criticism by government officials and residents in the region for the limited advanced notice of the outages, and for not outlining the specific areas serviced by SPP partner utilities that would be affected.

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