Hard Freeze Pet Prep in the Deep South: The Law, and What These Freezes Actually Did

Texas repealed its 32 degree outdoor rule for dogs in 2021. State law now requires shelter, shade, potable water and a way to avoid standing water for a dog left outside and unattended on a restraint, and it names no temperature. Texas law leaves room for stricter local rules, and Dallas still publishes a 32 degree condition in its own code text. This page describes statutory text and is not legal advice; a lawyer licensed in your state can apply it to your situation.

Two other things about a Deep South freeze are widely misremembered, and both are documented. The alert names changed: the Weather Service consolidated Hard Freeze Warning into Freeze Warning. And the freezes ran longer than most people recall: nearly nine days in Texas in February 2021, and a single-digit morning in Mobile, Alabama in January 2025.

Where This Page Stops

The legal half covers Texas plus one named Texas city. It is not a survey of the Deep South. Louisiana and Florida disaster-weather rules are on our page about whether it is illegal to leave a pet behind. No statute was checked for Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas or Tennessee, which does not mean those states publish nothing.

How cold is too cold for a particular animal, shelter construction, bedding, calories, unfrozen water, frostbite, hypothermia and ice melt are covered, with veterinary and extension sources, in our winter storm and extreme cold guide and our guide to outdoor working dogs in extreme cold. This is not a veterinary page. Where a veterinary question comes up below, the answer is who to call.

The Texas 32 Degree Line Was Repealed

It was once true, which is why the belief persists. House Bill 1411 (80th Legislature, 2007) added Subchapter D to Chapter 821 of the Health and Safety Code, titled Unlawful Restraint of Dog. Section 821.077 barred leaving a dog outside and unattended on a restraint that unreasonably limited its movement in three circumstances:

• between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.;
• within 500 feet of a school; or
• in extreme weather, including when “the actual or effective outdoor temperature is below 32 degrees Fahrenheit”, when a heat advisory has been issued, or when a hurricane, tropical storm or tornado warning has been issued for the jurisdiction by the National Weather Service.

The bill took effect September 1, 2007. Anyone quoting 32 degrees as Texas law from then until 2021 was quoting the code correctly.

In the third called session of the 87th Legislature in 2021, Senate Bill 5 added a new Subchapter E. Its second section states: “Subchapter D, Chapter 821, Health and Safety Code, is repealed.” The Texas Legislature’s statutes site records the new subchapter as effective January 18, 2022. The 32 degree figure was not softened or renumbered. Its subchapter was repealed and a different one took its place.

Senate Bill 5 also says the change applies only to offenses committed on or after its effective date, and that earlier offenses stay governed by the former law. A repealed statute still governs conduct from the time it was in force.

To confirm it yourself, open the Texas Legislature’s statutes site, select the Health and Safety Code, then Chapter 821. As of August 19, 2026, the chapter lists Subchapter A (Treatment of Animals), B (Disposition of Cruelly Treated Animals), C (Euthanasia of Animals) and E (Unlawful Restraint of Dog). There is no Subchapter D, and the skipped letter is what a repeal looks like in a codified chapter.

What Replaced It

Subchapter E is built on a different idea, and reaches situations the old one did not. It also dropped some things the old one carried.

No temperature figure. Section 821.101 defines inclement weather as something that “includes rain, hail, sleet, snow, high winds, extreme low temperatures, or extreme high temperatures.” No degree figure appears in Sections 821.101 through 821.104. The subchapter does contain other numbers: ten feet, five times the dog’s length, and seven exceptions.

A standing requirement. Section 821.102(a) states: “An owner may not leave a dog outside and unattended by use of a restraint unless the owner provides the dog access to:” adequate shelter; an area that avoids standing water and exposure to excessive animal waste; shade from direct sunlight; and potable water.

The 2007 provision said, in effect, not during these hours, near a school, or in these weather conditions, and said nothing outside those windows. The 2021 provision says not at all unless those four things are provided. A tied dog with no shelter on a mild March afternoon was outside the old subchapter and is inside the new one.

Shelter is defined. Adequate shelter means a sturdy structure that protects the dog from inclement weather and has dimensions that let the dog stand erect, sit, turn around and lie down in a normal position. The temperature question did not vanish from the statute. It moved: the old law asked what the thermometer said, and the new one asks whether a correctly sized, sturdy structure protects the dog from inclement weather, which includes extreme low temperatures.

The restraint is regulated. Section 821.102(b) bars a restraint that is a chain, has weights attached, is shorter than the greater of ten feet or five times the dog’s length (nose tip to tail base), or attaches to a collar or harness not properly fitted. “Properly fitted” means appropriately sized for the dog’s measurements and body weight, not choking the dog or impeding normal breathing or swallowing, and not causing pain or injury.

Some of this predates 2021. HB 1411 already treated a length shorter than the greater of five times the dog’s length or 10 feet, and an improperly fitted collar, as unreasonable limits on movement. What is new in 2021 is the chain ban, the weights ban and the extension of the fitting rule to harnesses. The fitting test also changed: HB 1411 defined a properly fitted collar as one measuring the dog’s neck circumference plus at least one inch, while the 2021 test is functional. And in 2007 these items only mattered inside the three listed circumstances, while in 2021 they are a standing prohibition.

What the old text had that the new one does not.

• A ban on a pinch-type, prong-type or choke-type collar as a type. Subchapter E instead asks whether a collar or harness chokes the dog, impedes normal breathing or swallowing, or causes pain or injury. That is a change in the test, not a permission. Texas Penal Code Section 42.092 and local ordinances are separate laws that this page does not summarize, and nothing here says any collar type is lawful.
• A ban on a restraint in an unsafe condition.
• A three-hour ceiling on the temporary-task exception. The 2021 exceptions use “the time reasonably necessary” and “not longer than the time necessary” instead, with no hour figure.
• A written-warning step. Under HB 1411, an officer with probable cause gave the owner a signed written statement, and failing to comply within 24 hours of receiving it was a Class C misdemeanor. Section 821.102 has no warning step and no 24 hour clause. This describes what two statutes say and predicts nothing about what any officer or court will do.

Seven exceptions. Section 821.103(a) says Section 821.102 does not apply to: a public camping or recreational area; an activity under a valid state license associated with a dog’s use or presence; conduct directly related to the business of shepherding or herding cattle or livestock; conduct directly related to cultivating agricultural products; a dog left in an open-air truck bed only for the time reasonably necessary for a temporary task; a dog taken from the owner’s property and restrained no longer than the activity requires; and hunting or field trialing. These are activities, not a blanket exemption for a farm dog.

Section 821.103(b) disapplies only the length rule, Section 821.102(b)(3), for a restraint on a trolley system whose running line is at least as long. The shelter, standing-water, shade and water requirements are in a different subsection and are not named. The subchapter also states it does not prohibit walking a dog with a handheld leash.

Penalties. A person commits an offense by knowingly violating Section 821.102, and the restraint of each dog in violation is a separate offense. It is a Class C misdemeanor, or a Class B misdemeanor after a prior conviction under the section. The subchapter states no fine amount.

The absence of a number is not permission

Three things sit between a statute with no temperature figure and the conclusion that a dog is fine outside in a freeze. The shelter and water requirement does not switch off. Section 821.104 preserves stricter local rules, covered next. And Texas Penal Code Section 42.092, the state’s cruelty statute, is a separate law in a separate code. Our page on whether it is illegal to leave a pet behind reads that statute for the abandonment question, which differs from the restraint question here.

Our reading, not any agency’s: a statute listing what an owner must provide is an enforcement floor, not a veterinary opinion about your animal. What the animal can tolerate is on our winter storm and outdoor working dog pages.

Where 32 Degrees Survives: Local Rules and One Named City

The Legislature that removed the state figure also wrote a section preserving local authority. Section 821.104 says the subchapter does not preempt a local regulation relating to the restraint of a dog, or affect a political subdivision’s authority to adopt or enforce one, if it “is compatible with and equal to or more stringent than a requirement prescribed by this subchapter” or “relates to an issue not specifically addressed by this subchapter.” A municipal temperature threshold is a candidate under either reading, and a court would decide which applies.

Dallas

Dallas Animal Services, whose site says it is a department of the City of Dallas, publishes a Pet Laws page reproducing city code text under the headings City Code Language and Outdoor Housing of Pets. It says an owner commits an offense by restraining a domestic animal without access, at all times, to potable water and shelter that protects it from direct sunlight, standing water and extreme weather conditions. Those conditions include “the actual or effective outdoor temperature is below 32 degrees Fahrenheit”, a heat advisory, and a hurricane, tropical storm or tornado warning for the jurisdiction from the National Weather Service.

Those are the same three conditions, in the same order and words, as the repealed state provision. That is an observation about the text, not a history: no source cited here says which was written first or when the Dallas section was last amended. As of August 19, 2026, the wording appeared nowhere in Chapter 821 and did appear in what a City of Dallas department publishes as its code.

The same page carries Section 7-4.9, which sets requirements for an outdoor pen or structure used as a dog’s primary living area. It requires the shelter to have sufficient clean, dry bedding or other protection that lets the dog retain body heat “when the weather is colder than what a dog of that breed and condition can comfortably tolerate”. A city code acknowledging breed and condition matches what veterinary sources say: no single number fits every dog. The department also writes: “Pets must be brought indoors or provided with shelter that adequately protects them from extreme heat, freezing temperatures or inclement weather.”

Section numbers. The department page prints the heading Section 7-3.1 above two different provisions, one on loose pets and one on outdoor housing, so this page gives no section number for the outdoor-housing text. The city’s own dallascityhall.com Pet Laws page says owners must comply with Chapter 7 of the Dallas City Code. The Dallas City Code as its publisher hosts it is the document that settles the number and current text, so confirm it there.

One city is one city

Dallas is the only municipal code cited here. Nothing in this page says other Southern cities have or lack such a rule. What Section 821.104 supports is narrower: in Texas your address may sit under a local layer the state text does not show.

How to find your own city’s rule

1. Find the code itself, not an article about it. Start at your city’s own website and follow its link to its code library. Summaries cannot show a currency note, amendment history or repeal.
2. Open the animal chapter and read its table of contents. In Dallas the animal ordinances are in Chapter 7. A provision like Outdoor Housing of Pets is not a phrase most people would search.
3. Search the words codes use: restrain, restraint, tether, shelter, adequate shelter, inclement, extreme weather, confinement. The unproductive term is the one everybody tries first: cold.
4. Read the definitions before the offense. Owner, restrain, domestic animal, adequate shelter and inclement weather are often defined earlier and can widen or narrow the offense.
5. Check the currency note. If the library does not say what the text is current through, call the city secretary or clerk.
6. Expect more than one layer. City, county and state can each have a rule. Texas expressly preserves stricter local rules; whether your state does is a question about your state.

This method is our own, assembled from what Section 821.104 makes possible. It is not an agency instruction.

What the Freezes Did: February 2021

NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) published an account of the February 2021 event titled The Great Texas Freeze: February 11-20, 2021, dated February 24, 2023.

• Duration. “The Great Freeze lasted 8 days, 23 hours, and 23 minutes, with the last Hard Freeze Warning expiring on Saturday, February 20th at 9 a.m.” Nearly nine days, not a night or a weekend.
• Streak. In central Texas, including Austin and Waco, six to nine consecutive days of freezing temperatures broke records for the longest freezing streak in the state’s recorded history. That measures a different thing from the warning period.
• Extent. Every county in the state as far south as the Rio Grande was under a Winter Storm Warning, many with wind chill values below zero. NCEI says: “It was the coldest winter storm for Texas since December 1989.” It also says the event was not the most intense freeze in the state’s recorded history, while causing a billion dollars’ worth of damage, statewide blackouts and hundreds of fatalities. Our inference, not NCEI’s: that points at systems more than at the thermometer.
• Human toll. NCEI states that the Texas Department of State Health Services reported the death toll at over 200 lives.
• Outage. NCEI says power outages were mostly concentrated in Texas, and that at the peak nearly 10 million people were in the dark. That is a peak across the South, not a Texas total. Federal electricity regulators counted a different, Texas-only quantity, worked through on our page on a power outage that lasts weeks. Neither number is wrong; they measure different things.
• Shelves. NCEI’s one sentence on retail is about groceries: impassable roads and the statewide blackout caused shortages at grocery stores. No source cited here says anything about pet-aisle stock. The structural point stands: the useful time to buy supplies is a boring week, since impassable roads reach the store before you do. See when to buy pet emergency supplies before hurricane season.
• Wildlife. NCEI reports that, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife, the event caused no less than 3.8 million fish to perish along the Texas coast.

NCEI’s duration sentence names a Hard Freeze Warning. That correctly describes 2021, but it is not what your forecast office issues now (see the alert names below).

What the Freezes Did: January 2025 on the Gulf Coast

The National Weather Service office serving Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida published an event summary headed HISTORIC January 2025 Snowstorm, dated January 21, 2025.

• Mobile Regional Airport set a new 2-day snowfall record of 7.5 inches, passing the 6.0 inch record that had stood since the February Snowstorm of 1895.
• Pensacola set a 2-day record of 8.9 inches, against the prior 3.0 inches from 1895.
• The office says the storm surpassed the snow and ice accumulations of the historic 2014 event, and that Winter Storm Warnings spanned the entire Gulf Coast beforehand.
• On January 22, Mobile fell to six degrees Fahrenheit, which the office attributes to the snowpack, breaking the daily low record and “tying for the 3rd coldest low on record.” Pensacola dropped to thirteen degrees the same morning, also a daily record.
• The office adds: “This marked only the 11th time Mobile, AL recorded a single-digit low temperature.”

Our reasoning, not the Weather Service’s: a temperature a city has seen eleven times is not one its households have practiced for. That is why the useful preparation here is documents and decisions made in advance, not instinct on the night.

The Water Clock Is Not the Power Clock

February 2021 is remembered as a power failure. On the drinking-water side it was its own event, and a state regulator published the scale. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) publication GI-598 (5/21), TCEQ Plan: After-Action Review of Public Water Systems and Winter Storm Uri, reports that TCEQ oversees more than 7,000 public water systems, of which 4,647 are community public water systems serving people year round, such as residential consumers.

TCEQ reports that nearly 40% of those community systems issued a boil water notice during the storm.

TCEQ figure (GI-598, 5/21)	Value	Peak date TCEQ prints
Systems under Boil Water Notice	1,985	2/19/21
Population under Boil Water Notice	16,351,788	2/18/21

Of the 1,985 systems, TCEQ prints that 1,103 (55%) are subject to regulations requiring emergency power or preparedness plans, and 1,545 (78%) are small systems serving fewer than 3,300 people. Of those 1,545 small systems, 888 (57%) serve fewer than 500 people. On TCEQ’s numbers, this was a rural and small-town failure at least as much as a metropolitan one (our reading, not TCEQ’s conclusion).

A notice is not proof of contamination. TCEQ says systems issue boil water notices as a precaution or notification when an unexpected condition creates the potential for biological contamination. Sixteen million people under a notice is not sixteen million people drinking contaminated water, and GI-598 does not say the second.

What drove the notices. TCEQ says several conditions affected systems’ ability to treat or distribute water, “including” loss of power, loss of pressure, damaged equipment and dangerous road conditions. Separately, NCEI writes: “The freeze also caused water pipes to burst and boil water advisories were issued in many counties.” Frozen pipes are not among TCEQ’s four items, but TCEQ’s list is introduced as illustrative, so their absence is not evidence TCEQ ruled them out. These are two agencies writing about the same winter for different purposes, and neither list is merged into a single cause here. To learn what caused a particular system’s notice, ask that system.

Currency. GI-598 is a May 2021 plan document that describes its review as having a timeline of about 12 months, so a later TCEQ report may exist. As of August 19, 2026, TCEQ’s response page said an after-action review had been conducted and linked GI-598. Treat the figures as GI-598’s, dated 5/21.

What goes in the pet’s bowl is a separate question, covered on our page on pets and a boil water advisory, including the refrigerator dispenser, ice tray, filter and fish tank.

The Alert Names You Will See Now

What changed

NOAA’s National Weather Service published a notice headed Hazard Simplification project seeks to simplify weather messaging. Under extreme cold, Wind Chill Watches become Extreme Cold Watch, Wind Chill Warnings become Extreme Cold Warning, and Wind Chill Advisory becomes Cold Weather Advisory. Under freeze, Hard Freeze Watches become Freeze Watch, and Hard Freeze Warnings are consolidated into Freeze Warning.

The notice says the changes take place on Oct. 1 and that a Service Change Notification was released March 26, 2024 announcing the plan to roll them out on the first day of October. It also mentions a Winter Outlook release on October 17, 2024, which fixes which October is meant. The Weather Service’s reason is that the changes “seek to clarify that cold can be dangerous with or without wind”, addressing a misconception that extreme cold is tied to colder temperatures only when there is wind.

What the surviving names mean

NWS Glossary entry	What it says
Hard Freeze	Surface air temperature reaches 28°F or lower for an extended period, killing most types of vegetation
Freeze Warning	Issued during the growing season when surface temperatures are expected to drop below freezing over a large area for an extended period, whether or not frost develops
Freeze Watch	Issued when significant, widespread freezing temperatures are possible but occurrence, location or timing is uncertain
Extreme Cold Warning	Issued when dangerously cold air temperatures or wind chill values are expected or occurring; criteria vary from place to place
Cold Weather Advisory	Issued for dangerously cold temperatures or wind chill values not expected to reach warning criteria

The hard freeze definition ends with vegetation, and the Freeze Warning definition begins with the growing season. Neither is an animal-welfare instruction. The two entries the Glossary words in terms of danger are Extreme Cold Warning and Cold Weather Advisory. No entry mentions an animal. The Glossary says of the Extreme Cold Warning: “The criteria for this warning varies from place to place.” There is no national number.

Our conclusion, not the Weather Service’s: a Freeze Warning is defined for the growing season, so its absence in January says nothing about whether a night is dangerous for an animal. Watch the products with danger language, read your forecast office’s discussion, and use the veterinary sources on our winter storm page for a specific animal. Do not read the Glossary’s 28°F hard freeze figure as an animal threshold: it is written about vegetation.

Heating Equipment Is Not Insulation

A common reaction to a Southern freeze is that houses here are not built for it. What sits underneath is a federal statistic about equipment, not walls. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), reporting the 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey in a March 9, 2023 Today in Energy piece, defines space-heating equipment as any equipment that generates heat for warmth, such as natural gas furnaces, plug-in electric space heaters and wood-burning stoves.

• In the South and West, an average of 5% of households did not use their available space-heating equipment.
• 1.9% of households in the South and 3.1% in the West had no space-heating equipment.
• In Florida, 8% of households had none, and an additional 20% had equipment they did not use.
• EIA says the most common reason was that the home was in a warm region and heating was not needed.
• The survey collected data from 18,496 households by web or mail questionnaire during late 2020 and early 2021, the winter of the February 2021 freeze. EIA does not date the responses more precisely.

The second Florida group owns equipment. Whether it works, whether anyone has run it recently and whether the household knows how are not things the survey measured. And EIA’s numbers say nothing about insulation or building codes, so this page makes no claim about how Southern housing is insulated.

Our reasoning, not EIA’s: a house with no working heat loses its indoor advantage in a multi-day freeze, and how fast depends on the species. See indoor temperature decay and species thresholds. If the house will not hold, whether warming centers take pets is where the destination question starts.

Community and Outdoor Cats: What Alley Cat Allies Publishes

The instinct in a freeze is to get outdoor cats inside or to a shelter. Alley Cat Allies, in its Cold Weather Tips for Cats fact sheet, says something else. It says cats have always lived outside and thrived in all kinds of climates, and are well adapted to their environments and know where to find food and shelter. Then, as a capitalized heading: “DO NOT bring cats or kittens to animal shelters.” Its reason is that many shelters lack humane, nonlethal policies and programs, so bringing cats where they could be killed is not in their best interest, even in cold weather.

The qualifier is part of the same instruction: “Unless there is illness or injury–in which case consult a veterinarian–allowing cats to remain outdoors is the best way to protect them.” The instruction is not to leave them alone. It says there is work for you to do, with a named exception for a sick or injured cat, and a named person to consult about that cat.

The fact sheet’s feeding advice:

• Cats can benefit from extra food in winter, so increase portions to help them conserve energy.
• Canned or wet food takes the least energy to digest.
• Provide fresh food and water daily or twice daily rather than let leftovers freeze.
• A feeding station is the best way to feed community cats in the cold months.
• If a snowstorm that may trap you at home is forecast, make sure cats have enough food and water to last more than a day.

Two of these pull against each other, and the fact sheet resolves them under its heading on preventing food and water from freezing: serve wet food in plastic containers, and mainly dry food will not freeze, though dry food takes more energy to digest. Our reading: the daily rule assumes you can get there, the more-than-a-day rule assumes you cannot, and dry food is the one type the sheet says will not freeze. The snowstorm line is scoped to a storm that may trap you at home. It is not a general instruction to leave a multi-day pile of food out, and not an evacuation provisioning figure.

The gap to keep in view. The fact sheet is written about cold weather in general. It names no event as long as the Texas freeze or as unusual as Mobile’s morning, and it gives no temperature or severity at which its advice stops. This page has no source for one and does not invent one. Our reasoning: in an event measured in days, the caretaker work has to be done repeatedly, possibly while roads are impassable, so the thing in your control beforehand is having the station, food and water in place before the forecast turns. A sick or injured cat is where the fact sheet’s own exception takes over, and a veterinarian decides what to do. This site has no veterinary reviewer and publishes no way to judge whether a community cat is sick.

Shelter size, insulation, elevation, straw versus hay, and methods for keeping bowls unfrozen are covered on our page on outdoor working dogs in extreme cold. Before building a station, read our page on a feeding station and trail camera for a displaced cat, which covers what else a station attracts.

The Deep South Hard Freeze Checklist

This is a documents-and-decisions checklist. The animal-care checklist is on the two pages linked at the end, and it is the one to do first if a freeze is imminent.

• Find your city’s and county’s rule before a freeze, and write it down. Follow your city’s link to its code library, open the animal chapter, read the table of contents and the definitions, and check the currency note.
• In Texas, read Health and Safety Code Subchapter E on the Legislature’s statutes site. Chapter 821 has no Subchapter D, and Subchapter E has no temperature figure.
• Stop repeating 32 degrees as Texas state law. It was repealed, effective January 18, 2022. If your city publishes 32 degrees in its own code, cite the city.
• Delete Hard Freeze Warning from any checklist or group chat. The products are now Freeze Watch, Freeze Warning, Extreme Cold Watch, Extreme Cold Warning and Cold Weather Advisory.
• Do not treat a Freeze Warning as an animal alert. It is defined for the growing season, and the Extreme Cold Warning criteria vary from place to place.
• Plan for days, not a night. NCEI records the February 2021 Texas event at 8 days, 23 hours and 23 minutes.
• Plan the water separately from the power. TCEQ recorded a peak of 1,985 community water systems and 16,351,788 people under boil water notice, mostly small systems. Learn whether your system is small and how it notifies customers. Read our boil water advisory page while nothing is happening.
• Find out now whether your household has working heat. EIA reported 8% of Florida households with no space-heating equipment and another 20% who have it and do not use it. Equipment nobody has run this decade is not equipment that works.
• If community cats live on your property, read the operator’s guidance rather than acting on instinct, including the illness-or-injury exception.
• Do the animal-care work from the pages that carry the veterinary sources: cold tolerance, shelter, bedding, unfrozen water, calories and warning signs are on our winter storm and outdoor working dog pages.
• Call a veterinarian or an emergency clinic if you are worried about an animal that has been out in the cold. This page publishes no clinical warning signs and is no substitute for that call.

Then look at where the animals are when it is cold: the tie-out, pen, porch, shed, or the gap under the house where the cats go. The statute names shelter, standing water, potable water and shade, and each can be checked from your own yard on an ordinary afternoon.

Where to Go Next

This page is the law-and-record spoke of our pet emergency playbooks hub.

• What cold does to a specific animal: our winter storm and extreme cold guide.
• A dog whose job is being outside: outdoor working dogs in extreme cold.
• The abandonment question: is it illegal to leave your pet behind.
• The power side of a multi-day freeze: a power outage that lasts weeks.
• The bowl once the water is suspect: pets and a boil water advisory.
• Outdoor cats: a feeding station and trail camera for a displaced cat.
• A house that will not hold: indoor temperature decay and species thresholds and pets at cooling and warming centers.

The thing most likely to be out of date when the freeze arrives is not your gear. It is what you believe the rules are. Open your city’s animal chapter, find the section that governs an animal kept outside, and read it once with its definitions.