Arctic front brings sleet, snow flurries to North Texas
The Arctic Blast is leaving areas across North Texas seeing sleet, ice even some light snow.
Temperatures Monday night into Tuesday fell into the lower 30s and upper 20s across North Texas. The Metroplex will fall below freezing by midnight and even earlier in the northern counties. Areas south and east of DFW have already seen some sleet and light snow showers.
Showers across the area quickly changed into a wintry mix around 8 p.m. The wintry precipitation left caused scattered sleet and snow flurries across North Texas, but not of it has not caused any major road problems.
Overnight into Tuesday, the wintry precipitation is moving south and east of the Metroplex. Take extra precautions during the morning commute since the roads will be slick and may have ice patches.
Fort Worth ISD has already announced a two-hour delay for Tuesday. Dallas ISD says it will monitor roads and make a decision as to whether to cancel classes by 6 a.m. on Tuesday.
The city of Dallas is deploying its Ice Force to treat the roads overnight. The city has staffed more than 30 ice trucks to go survey streets and treat them if needed. Drivers should plan ahead.
People across the Metroplex seem to be preparing in different ways. Plenty of people are making trips to the grocery store just in case they're stuck at home on Tuesday.
The Metroplex will have very little precipitation, but roads could still be icy by morning as temperatures fall into the mid teens with 30+ mph winds.
For counties south of DFW, Monday was really the day to prepare with the possibility it could be very difficult to get out early Tuesday.
It was a busy night at the HEB in Ennis. People were stocking up with tough driving conditions likely on Tuesday.
Further south in Navarro County, all independent school districts had announced they canceled classes for Tuesday.
“All of these districts want to air on the cautious side,” explained Navarro County Management Coordinator Eric Meyers. “So being the fact that the National Weather Service is fairly confident we're going to have travel impacts, not only on primary roads but on secondary roads, I think they take that into consideration.”
The Navarro County Emergency Management Office went active at 8 p.m. Throughout the night, two vehicles will rove all over the county to feed back real-time info and video on the roads. The biggest worry is secondary roads and the long freeze this winter blast brings.
“These secondary roads will likely stay glazed or have some accumulation of wintry precipitation until Wednesday,” Meyers said.
The hope is that people in Navarro County don't venture out on Tuesday unless they have to.