The Arctic blast that caused a Texas freeze has struck with historic snow in Southeast Texas extending all the way to Panama City, FL.
At one point 99 percent of Texas was below freezing.
So far, we haven’t seen any major updates on fish kills or exotic wildlife die-offs like we did in 2021 but keep in mind most of that happened days after the initial cold snap.
Last week there was a series of tarpon die-offs, so it will be interesting to see if that occurs again with much cold weather.
“Tarpon were observed in the Highland Bayou Diversion Canal on January 12,-13 and we’re still assessing. Also dead tarpon were observed in the lower San Bernard on 01/13, but no complete count is available,” said Chris Jensen, head of Texas Parks & Wildlife Department’s Kills & Spills Team.
When asked about barge traffic being stopped in Lower Laguna Madre he said the following.
“They are planning on stopping barge traffic on the lower Laguna Madre so far,” he said.
We were not able to get any other information on this but will keep on working on it.
I went and looked at the north end of Sabine Lake and much of the canal system in the Lower Neches Wildlfie Management Area was frozen over similar to the 2021 freeze. This particular event has more of a chance of impacting Sabine Lake and Lake Calcasieu than other parts of the state, so we will be monitoring these areaes very closely.
KFDM Meteorology Greg Bostwick posted these graphics showsing temperatures in the Triangle and Bolivar areas.
We will keep you updated.
Chester Moore
