Cold weather materializes, but no return of ‘Snowmageddon’

Cold temperatures blasted Gonzales County with a wind chill and hard freeze warning in effect from Sunday, Jan. 14 through Wednesday, Jan. 17.

While arctic temps created fears of a return of the type of unforgiving weather last seen during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, the area was spared the high volume of freezing precipitation that sat on Texas during the so-called “Snowmageddon” and took down the state’s power grid three years ago.

As a result, very few outages were reported during the cold spell, with the majority of those that happened in eastern Gonzales County and western Lavaca County attributed to a motor vehicle accident caused disruption in service to about 1,000 customers early Monday, Jan. 15.

The area did record its lowest temperatures since February 2021 as the mercury dipped to a low of 14 degrees Fahrenheit early Wednesday morning, but, as of press time, temperatures were expected to climb back above freezing and remain there until the next cold front moves into the area early Saturday, Jan. 20.