From Dallas to Nashville, winter storms will sweep through, leaving ice and power outages in their wake. AccuWeather meteorologists explained that cold air mixed with wet storms will make for an icy mess.
On Monday, Jan. 30, rain is expected to fall in North Texas throughout the day into the night. The temperature is also expected to make a drastic drop, raising the risk of freezing rain. The second storm forming in Texas on Tuesday will allow for continued ice in parts of the state.
"The amount of ice with this second wave could prove to be more significant than the first and could make for major travel disruptions to commutes on Tuesday," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bill Deger.
A glaze of ice can also be expected on elevated surfaces, like cars, trees and powerlines, causing the chance of power outages to occur. The freezing conditions are likely to continue through Wednesday as another storm could make its way through central Texas to the Kentucky-Tennessee border.
"The amount of ice with this second wave could prove to be more significant than the first and could make for major travel disruptions to commutes on Tuesday," explained Deger.
The National Weather Service office in Fort Worth said it had received numerous reports of accidents on bridges, overpasses and untreated roadways early morning, on Jan. 30.
Christopher Cook, the chief of police for White Settlement, a suburb of Fort Worth, posted on Twitter that icy roads were contributing to accidents in the area. “People must slow down when approaching elevated surfaces,” Cook wrote.
AccuWeather reported that the moisture streaming from the Gulf may bring enough warmth to slowly erode the cold in the region by the end of the week.
“How long the icy conditions could last will depend on how long it takes for temperatures to rise into the middle and upper 30s, so precipitation can change over to plain rain,” AccuWeather said.
Flights in the DFW area are also being delayed or canceled. Over a third of all flights at Dallas Love Field were called off or delayed, according to flight tracking site Flightaware.com. The airport had more than 200 canceled flights into or out of the airport.
According to The Dallas Morning News, DFW Airport also reported 157 canceled flights into or out of the airport and 38 delays.
