Always Prepared for Extreme Weather

For the Valley Ranchers that lived here two years ago, the recent ice storm might have felt familiar. While North Texas was fortunate enough to not lose power this time around, you might be thinking that all the recent snow, ice and extreme winters weren’t supposed to be common in Texas. You might learn something new today when we tell you that despite this weather feeling atypical, freezing rain is to be expected about once a year in Texas!

John Nielsen-Gammon, our state’s climatologist, says that most areas north of Interstate 10 in Texas average at least one day of freezing rain a year. Meanwhile, the Texas Panhandle gets around three days of freezing rain per year.

While freezing rain, chilly temperatures and slick roads cause a lot of stress on homeowners, commuters and maintenance teams, the team at IFCD 3 is prepared for all kinds of weather, ice storms included. As the past week’s ice melted, we worked hard to direct excess water out of Valley Ranch, through our waterways, and move it to the Elm Fork of the Trinity River.

Rest assured, we always have and always will take proactive steps to protect the community from extreme weather. One of the proactive steps we took a few years back was the creation of a backup power system that automatically turns on when our city’s power grid fails. This onsite power generator provides a reliable and cost-effective way to keep our pump station up and running, should we need to use our pumps during a power outage. If there is ever another time when the community’s electric grid goes dark – like in February of 2021 – our facilities will still be able to pump water away from Valley Ranch and back to the Trinity River.

For more information on extreme weather here in Valley Ranch, check out our previous blog post about what a freeze means for IFCD 3 and how we handle the icy conditions during the winter.