Ice Storm — Live Oak, Texas

2011-02-03 to 2011-02-04 · Live Oak, Texas

Event narrative

Around 1/10 of ice from freezing drizzle accumulated across Webb, La Salle, and McMullen Counties. Around 1/4 of ice accumulated east of these counties to the coast, with a pocket of up to 3/8 of ice across Nueces, Kleberg and Jim Wells Counties. The icing resulted in widespread road closures of primary highways, secondary roadways, and city and county roads. Numerous traffic accidents occurred, especially in Corpus Christi and Laredo. One traffic injury was reported in Corpus Christi after a 10 year old girls was struck by a vehicle involved in a multi-vehicle, ice related accident. A truck also rolled over in Live Oak County killing one and injuring another, after encountering a patch of ice on a bridge. Most schools and numerous businesses and government offices were closed due to the event.

Wider weather episode

South Texas experienced frigid temperatures and prolonged hard freezes between Tuesday morning February 1st and Saturday morning February 5th, 2011. A large dome of arctic air plunged southward across South Texas on Tuesday morning February 1st behind a strong cold front. Arctic high pressure continued to push further south across South Texas between Wednesday February 2nd and Friday February 4th. As a result, widespread record low temperatures occurred between February 2nd and 5th. Most areas averaged between the middle 20s to middle 30s during this entire period. The duration of freezing temperatures for this event was quite remarkable.

These very cold temperatures set the stage for one of the more significant ice storms to affect South Texas in recent history. A strong upper level disturbance approached South Texas on Thursday February 3rd. This disturbance along with increasing Gulf moisture above the cold arctic air helped to produce freezing drizzle by early Thursday evening. Freezing drizzle and light freezing rain then continued through all of Thursday night before ending Friday morning. A brief mix of sleet and snow did occur at times during this event across the Brush Country and northern Coastal Bend. However, little to no sleet or snow accumulation was observed during this event. Ice accumulations on the other hand were significant across much of South Texas. Generally 1/4 to 3/8 of ice accumulations occurred across the Coastal Bend and eastern Brush Country with up to 1/10 ice accumulation across the remainder of South Texas. This amount of ice produced very dangerous driving conditions. As a result, state and local officials closed many of the main roads, highways and bridges across South Texas. Numerous accidents along with multiple injuries were reported. Corpus Christi Fire Department units responded to 75 incidents in a three hour period. Corpus Christi Police Department units responded to 81 major accidents.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 289353. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.