Houston officials are urging residents to prepare to stay home from Saturday, Jan. 24, through Tuesday morning, Jan. 27, as an Arctic blast and possible ice push toward the region.
They said these conditions could test roads and the city’s ability to keep residents warm.
At a City Council meeting this week, Mayor John Whitmire stressed urgency and frequency of updates.
“All the department directors have been asked to have all hands on deck, go through equipment, and go through plans for their families,” Whitmire said. “I will be talking to Houstonians later in the week to advise everyone to stay off the roads…I’m here to emphasize it is a serious storm.”
What city officials said
City emergency management director Brian Mason told council members the forecast remains “dynamic” but is trending colder, with a higher chance that ice could creep into the metro area.
Mason warned that communities north of Houston could see heavy ice, potentially “catastrophically damaging to critical infrastructure” if accumulations reach the half-inch to inch range.
Meanwhile, Houston itself could still see a glazing that makes travel hazardous and complicates restoration if lines go down.
“The weather forecast is dynamic,” Mason said. “We’re going to be monitoring the weather really closely when it comes to the ice, but regardless, it’s going to be bone-chilling cold. We’re going to have temperatures in the low 20s, upper teens. We’re going to have wind chills in the low teens, maybe single digits if you’re in the north part of the metro area.”
Mason compared the threat more to the prolonged, dangerous freeze of 2021 than last year’s snow event, when people could go outside, “play and enjoy the snow,” telling council members the city should prepare accordingly.
“2021 was bone-chilling cold for 40 to 42 hours below freezing,” Mason added. “I’m not saying this is going to be the winter storm of 2021, but we should prepare like this is going to be the winter storm of 2021.”
While Houston officials said they are not currently expecting a supply-and-demand crisis for electricity, they repeatedly pointed to ice-related damage to transmission infrastructure outside the city that could still cause outages.
City leaders said they are coordinating with CenterPoint and monitoring conditions as the storm nears.
What can Houstonians do?
As part of the city’s plan, Whitmire said 12 warming centers will open across Houston, four of which will be equipped with generators, aimed at keeping residents without reliable heat from facing dangerous temperatures. Those locations include multi-service centers in neighborhoods such as Acres Home, Fifth Ward, Kashmere Gardens, Sunnyside, and Third Ward.
Multiple multi-service centers told the Defender that they have not received any storm-related instructions as of Jan. 21, and were awaiting more information from the city.
In 2025, the City of Houston did not open warming centers despite freezing temperatures. The Office of Emergency Management said the temperature did not exceed “action levels,” which are triggered when temperatures dip to 24 degrees or 15 degrees with wind chill for at least two hours.
Council members also raised operational questions that often surface after storms, such as how residents should donate supplies without creating health risks and how the city will communicate with communities where English is not the primary language.
During the briefing, officials emphasized safe donations, like prepackaged, sealed food rather than home-cooked meals. They said messaging will rely on social media, city alerts in English and Spanish, and website translations into 14 additional languages.
On the roads, city and regional transportation agencies are preparing for the prospect that rain ahead of the front could freeze, turning bridges and overpasses into the most dangerous stretches.
Public Works Director Randy Macchi said the city is responsible for more than 16,000 lane miles and will focus on a targeted list of 41 priority locations, including elevated roadways, bridges, and overpasses. These will be treated with brine roughly 24 hours before the storm arrives.
Macchi also delivered a message that can surprise residents: don’t drip faucets. The guidance, he said, is less about whether one house’s pipes freeze and more about protecting the overall distribution system by limiting unnecessary demand, especially if plants face disruption or power issues.
“We always encourage folks to know where the water cutoff valve in your home is,” he advised Houstonians. “Almost every home has some water shutoff valve in there. The best thing you can do if you’re concerned is shut the water off before the storm comes, drain your lines, and you won’t have any burst pipes in your home.”
