An Arctic Blast Could Be About to Decide Texas Governor Race

An upcoming winter storm in Texas could prove a factor in this year's state gubernatorial election, almost one year after severe weather left millions without power in subzero temperatures.

A winter storm watch was issued on Monday for most of North Texas. It will be effective from Wednesday, with an arctic cold front set to arrive that morning and last through Friday. Temperatures should pick up again on Saturday.

Freezing conditions caused by a winter storm in February 2021 resulted in high demand for electricity and saw the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) order power transmission utilities to cut power to homes and businesses.

Millions of Texans were left without power and at least 246 people died. This led to new efforts to weatherize the state's electrical grid in order to avoid a repeat of the system's failure.

Temperatures will reach a high of just 26 F in Fort Worth on Thursday and there will be a low of around 16 F.

There will be possible snow accumulations of up to 2 inches and ice accumulations up to 3 inches, which could make travel difficult.

Temperatures are then expected to pick up into the 40s by Saturday.

Former U.S. Representative Beto O'Rourke, a Democrat who is challenging Republican Governor Greg Abbott in this year's gubernatorial race, has made the power grid's failures a campaign issue.

O'Rourke is likely to seize on any problems the grid experiences during the upcoming cold front, particularly as recent polling shows Abbott defeating him by double digits.

A poll from The Dallas Morning News/University of Texas at Tyler conducted from January 18 to 25 showed Abbott leading the governor's race with 46 percent support compared to O'Rourke's 36 percent. That's a gain of five points for Abbott since November.

O'Rourke has criticized Abbott's efforts to weatherize the power grid and called for natural gas facilities to face weatherization requirements.

The Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates the state's oil and gas industry, has not yet provided requirements for gas suppliers.

Interim ERCOT CEO Brad Jones addressed the issue of possible power outages at an energy forum in Dallas last week.

"We are very ready. We have spent the last 12 months making sure that all of the generators are ready to operate," Jones said. "They've improved their weatherization, made sure they have more insulation on their equipment, and we've gone out and inspected them to make sure they've done that."

The upcoming cold weather is not expected to be as severe as the winter storm that hit the state from February 13 to 21 last year, when the Dallas-Fort Worth area experienced either freezing or below freezing temperatures for 222 hours.

Madison Gordon, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Monday: "This is a different system entirely and the cold temperatures are not expected to linger for as long."

Though power outages do not appear to be expected, any failures in the power grid will quickly become the focus of the gubernatorial race.