Cold/Wind Chill — Newton, Texas

2010-01-08 to 2010-01-11 · Newton, Texas

Event narrative

KFDM-TV and the Jasper Newsboy newspaper reported a 99 year old woman on FM 1012 in Jamestown was killed in a house fire caused by a space heater. The home was completely destroyed.

Wider weather episode

A deep upper level trough moving eastward across the United States forced a bitterly cold Arctic airmass southward from Canada into the Gulf Coast states on January 7, 2010. This airmass remained in place for several days across southeast Texas, leading to the coldest temperatures seen across this region since February 1996. A few record low temperatures and record low maximum temperatures were set. Many locations in the Lakes Region of southeast Texas remained below freezing for over 36 hours from around midnight early on January 8th through the afternoon on Saturday January 9th.

These bitterly cold temperatures led to several school closures, numerous weather-related fires, and widespread plumbing ruptures throughout southeast Texas. One indirect fatality occurred near Jamestown in Newton County due to a house fire. The Insurance Council of Texas estimated losses across southeast Texas from the cold weather at around $1 million.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 210174. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.