Texas snow threatens to unleash blackouts and travel chaos

A winter storm is poised to pummel Texas and the US South later this week, putting the region at risk of blackouts and travel mayhem. About 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 centimeters) of snow and ice will fall across southern Oklahoma and Texas, including Dallas, coating trees, roads and power lines from San Antonio to northern Louisiana, said Peter Mullinax, a forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center. The system “is going to be a disruptive one with significant accumulations of snow and ice,” Mullinax said. It will start to build Wednesday night, getting stronger on Thursday before sweeping east across the South on Friday. The storm is likely to trigger widespread power outages, snarl transportation in a region where snow plows and salt trucks are rare, and ground or delay airline traffic. While temperatures won’t approach the extreme lows seen during the February 2021 storm that killed more than 200 people and left millions without power for days, any recurrence of cold raises concern about the stability of the state’s fragile power grid. <br/>