Prepare for Winter Weather

When winter approaches, it's essential to stay prepared for potential cold weather, snow, and ice. This page provides resources and guidance to ensure residents can safely navigate the winter season.

Stay Informed

• Weather Alerts: Sign up for Jersey Village Alerts to receive real-time updates on severe weather conditions directly to your phone or email. Visit to register.
• Emergency Services: Keep contact numbers for emergency services handy. In the case of an emergency always call 911.

Home Preparation

• Insulate Your Home: Ensure that your home is well-insulated to keep the heat in and the cold out. Check windows and doors for drafts and consider weather-stripping or additional insulation.
• Heating Systems: Have your heating system checked by a professional to ensure it's operating efficiently. Remember to replace filters as recommended.
• Emergency Kit: Prepare an emergency kit that includes items like blankets, a flashlight, batteries, a first-aid kit, and enough food and water to last for several days.

On the Road

• Safe Driving Tips: Reduce speed during adverse weather conditions. Keep a safe distance from other vehicles and stay alert. Remember that elevated bridges will freeze before the streets will. 

Additional Tips

• Avoid Frozen Pipes: Insulating pipes that are exposed to cold temperatures can help protect them. This can apply to pipes that may be exposed in your attic or garage. More information to protect pipes can be found below.
• Check on Neighbors: During extreme cold, check on elderly neighbors or those who may need additional assistance.
• Electricity Outages: Electricity outages can be tracked on the CenterPoint website here. The City does not own or operate the electric network. 

Safe Use of Space Heaters

Space heaters can provide additional warmth during cold snaps, but they must be used safely to prevent fire hazards and other safety risks. Here are key guidelines to follow:

• Select the Right Heater: Use a space heater that has been certified by a recognized testing laboratory and is the appropriate size for the area you intend to heat.
• Placement: Place space heaters on a flat, hard, non-flammable surface. Do not place them on furniture or carpets, which can overheat and start a fire.
• Keep Distance: Keep the heater at least three feet away from anything that can burn, including papers, clothing, and rugs.
• Never Leave It Unattended: Never leave a space heater running when you leave the room or go to sleep. Always turn it off when it is not in active use.
• Direct Supervision: Children and pets should be supervised around space heaters. Teach children to stay away from the heater to avoid burns or accidental fires.
• Avoid Extension Cords: Plug space heaters directly into wall outlets. Do not use an extension cord or power strip, which can overheat and result in a fire.
• Install Smoke Alarms: Ensure smoke alarms are installed on every floor of your home and test them monthly.

Caring for Plants

Cover sensitive plants to protect them from frost with burlap or plant covers. Bring potted plants indoors or into a sheltered area. Mulch around the base of plants to provide extra insulation.

Safety for Pets

Keep pets indoors during cold weather. Provide warm, comfortable sleeping areas inside the home. If pets must go outside, limit their exposure to the cold and ensure they have warm shelter with access to unfrozen water.

By following these safety tips, you can use space heaters effectively and safely during colder weather. Remember, space heaters are intended to supplement, not replace, your main heating system.

Protecting Your Pipes

When weather is forecasted to be at or below freezing one of the most important things you should do is to insulate any exposed pipes. This includes the water line to your home and the backflow preventor for your sprinkler system. 

Before the onset of cold weather, protect your pipes from freezing by following these recommendations:

• Drain water from swimming pool and water sprinkler supply lines following manufacturer's or installer's directions. Do not put antifreeze in these lines unless directed. Antifreeze is environmentally harmful, and is dangerous to humans, pets, wildlife, and landscaping.
• Remove, drain, and store hoses used outdoors. Close inside valves supplying outdoor hose bibs. Open the outside hose bibs to allow water to drain. Keep the outside valve open so that any water remaining in the pipe can expand without causing the pipe to break.
• Add insulation to attics, basements and crawl spaces. Insulation will maintain higher temperatures in these areas.
• Check around the home for other areas where water supply lines are located in unheated areas. Look in the garage, and under kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Both hot and cold water pipes in these areas should be insulated.
• Consider installing specific products made to insulate water pipes like a "pipe sleeve" or installing UL-listed "heat tape," "heat cable," or similar materials on exposed water pipes. Newspaper can provide some degree of insulation and protection to exposed pipes – even ¼” of newspaper can provide significant protection in areas that usually do not have frequent or prolonged temperatures below freezing.

Turn Off Water To Your Home

Should a homeowner decide to turn water off at the meter themselves, please take into consideration that damage can be caused by improper operation and the homeowner may be liable for repairs. 

Home owners can also turn off the water vale to their home. If the handle is pointed up or down, the water is typically flowing and the valve is open. If the handle is turned 90° to the pipe, then the  valve is typically not flowing or off.

How to Prevent Frozen Pipes

• Keep garage doors closed if there are water supply lines in the garage.
• Open kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors to allow warmer air to circulate around the plumbing. Be sure to move any harmful cleaners and household chemicals up out of the reach of children.
• When the weather is very cold outside, let the cold water drip from the faucet served by exposed pipes. Running water through the pipe - even at a trickle - helps prevent pipes from freezing.
• Keep the thermostat set to the same temperature both during the day and at night. By temporarily suspending the use of lower nighttime temperatures, you may incur a higher heating bill, but you can prevent a much more costly repair job if pipes freeze and burst.
• If you will be going away during cold weather, leave the heat on in your home, set to a temperature no lower than 55° F.

How to Thaw Frozen Pipes

• If you turn on a faucet and only a trickle comes out, suspect a frozen pipe. Likely places for frozen pipes include against exterior walls or where your water service enters your home through the foundation.
• Keep the faucet open. As you treat the frozen pipe and the frozen area begins to melt, water will begin to flow through the frozen area. Running water through the pipe will help melt ice in the pipe.
• Apply heat to the section of pipe using an electric heating pad wrapped around the pipe, an electric hair dryer, a portable space heater (kept away from flammable materials), or by wrapping pipes with towels soaked in hot water. Do not use a blowtorch, kerosene or propane heater, charcoal stove, or other open flame device.
• Apply heat until full water pressure is restored. If you are unable to locate the frozen area, if the frozen area is not accessible, or if you can not thaw the pipe, call a licensed plumber.
• Check all other faucets in your home to find out if you have additional frozen pipes. If one pipe freezes, others may freeze, too.

Learn More

Local Forecast: National Weather Service Houston-Galveston
Winter Weather: National Weather Service
Winter Weather: Ready.gov