Freeze Warning in Abilene TX Tonight — Exactly What to Do Before You Go to Bed

Find it. Turn it off and on to confirm it works. In most Abilene slab homes the shutoff is at the meter box at the street, or inside the home where the supply line enters. A frozen shutoff valve that has not been operated in 10 years may not close when you need it at 3am. If it is stiff or won’t fully close, call a plumber before the freeze arrives — not after. This one step determines whether a burst pipe is a $300 repair or a $5,000 flood.

A garden hose left connected during a freeze traps water in the bib and freezes from the outside in, splitting the fitting. The indoor supply valve for each hose bib is usually in the garage, utility room, or crawlspace. Turn it off, then open the exterior bib to drain the pipe segment between the indoor valve and the exterior. Leave the exterior bib open. This takes 5 minutes and eliminates one of the most common freeze failures in Abilene homes.

A slow cold water drip keeps water moving through the pipe and prevents the static water from freezing solid. Focus on: kitchen sink (if on an exterior wall), bathroom sinks on exterior walls, and the farthest fixture from the water heater. A drip rate of roughly 5 drops per second is sufficient. Do not drip hot water only — that drains your water heater and leaves the cold line static. Drip both hot and cold, or cold only. The drip rate does not need to be strong — it needs to be continuous.

This allows the heated interior air of the living space to reach the pipes under the cabinet. On a normal Abilene winter night this does nothing. On a night with single-digit temperatures, it may keep the pipes above 32°F when the exterior wall assembly is losing heat rapidly. Takes 30 seconds per cabinet. No downside.

If your water heater is in the attic — standard in most Abilene slab homes — it is your highest single-point freeze risk. Attics reach exterior temperature within hours of heating loss. During a hard freeze, an unprotected attic water heater can freeze and rupture, flooding the ceiling below. Before the freeze: ensure the attic access hatch is fully closed and insulated. If you have moving blankets or extra insulation batts, drape them around the unit (not over the flue). This buys hours during a short freeze. During a multi-day event like Uri, attic water heaters in unheated attics face real risk even with insulation.

As noted in the Uri megathread: if you leave water in a fountain and it freezes, the expansion will crack the fountain basin. Drain it tonight. Turn off your irrigation controller — even if you have a freeze sensor, do not rely on it for a multi-day hard freeze event. Blow out or drain the supply lines if your system has a drain valve. Fish in ponds with a running pump are fine — the movement prevents surface freeze. Goldfish and koi in outdoor ponds are cold-blooded and cold-tolerant; they do not need intervention.

A 55°F interior temperature is the minimum that meaningfully protects interior supply lines during a hard freeze. If you are leaving the property: set it to 55°F, do not turn the heat off entirely. The cost of heating an empty house for 3 days is $30 to $80. The cost of a burst pipe in an unoccupied house that no one notices for 24 hours before the main is shut off is $3,000 to $15,000. If you are leaving for more than 2 days during a forecast hard freeze, consider shutting the main and draining the lines at the lowest faucet instead.

For an extreme freeze event — single digits for 6 hours or more, or a multi-day event like Winter Storm Uri — the most reliable protection is shutting off the main water supply and opening the lowest faucet in the house to drain the lines. No water in the pipes means nothing can freeze and burst. The inconvenience is no water for the duration. The alternative is a failure probability that increases with every hour below 15°F. If you are staying home and can monitor, this is optional. If you are leaving the property, this is strongly recommended for any forecast below 15°F sustained for more than 4 hours.