Cover your outdoor faucets! Single-digit wind chills, maybe sleet headed for North Texas
Some harsh, cold weather is headed to North Texas, and weather forecasters say everyone should be prepared.
Of course, North Texans haven’t seen that winter weather on Monday, when it remained unseasonably warm with daytime temperatures in the mid-60s.
But a cold front was expected to arrive late Monday, and then wave after wave of cold weather will descend on the Dallas-Fort Worth area for several days.
The high temperature on Tuesday will be about 50.
Daytime temperatures on Wednesday will be in the upper 40s, with a low around 34. Officials at the National Weather Service in Fort Worth say residents could see some light sleet or freezing rain late Wednesday. There’s a 50 percent chance.
That’s why crews with the Texas Department of Transportation are scheduled to be out Monday in a nine-county area pre-treating bridges and overpasses with liquid brine for sleet and freezing rain.
“It’s like putting anti-freeze on the roads, and that’s our ice prevention,” said Val Lopez, a spokesman with TxDOT in Fort Worth. “Once the ice is here, we’ll be out to treat it.”
On Thursday, the chance of light freezing rain and sleet continues with highs in the upper 30s. Wind chill values will be in the 20s on Thursday.
“There is no doubt we are going to have very cold temperatures,” said Steve Fano, a meteorologist with the NWS in Fort Worth. “We just don’t know if we are going to get much precipitation.”
Fano said North Texans could see some very cold temperatures in the next few days.
North Texans will need to bundle up by Friday morning because temperatures will be in the mid-20s and wind chill values as low as 10.
Bitterly cold mornings are in the forecast for the weekend as forecasters say the wind chill values on Saturday and Sunday could be in the single digits.
Fano said the cold temperatures could stick around until the middle of next week.
Shelters for the homeless
A cold weather shelter alert was issued Monday in Fort Worth for the homeless. The local shelters will combine with three cold weather shelters in Tarrant County to provide housing Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
The three cold weather shelters could house about 300 homeless people if needed, officials said.
“This week the shelters and outreach teams are working to communicate with as many people as possible to ensure as many people as possible get inside,” said Lauren King, executive director of Tarrant County Homeless Coalition.
Fort Worth and Arlington have their own process for filling cold weather beds, but people experiencing homelessness are directed to one central place when a cold weather shelter alert is activated, King said.
The threshold for hazardous weather is met when the temperature in Arlington is expected to be below 39 degrees for more than four hours overnight.
In Fort Worth, when weather triggers are met and it is either below 40 degrees in wet conditions; below 35 degrees in dry conditions, or a wind chill of below 32 degrees for three or more consecutive hours.
King encouraged people to sign up for text alerts about cold weather shelter. For Fort Worth, text FWCOLD to 51555 and for Arlington text ARLCARES to 51555.
She said when a cold weather shelter alert is activated, officials send numerous texts a day with information on how to access shelter.
If someone is in need of help, they can call the Homeless Helpline at 817-996-8800 or use the form on the website to contact the helpline: https://etoclient49.socialsolutionsportal.com/intake/35d8b4d8-2de8-4f9e-93ba-d26526b94a92
This story was originally published February 8, 2021 at 12:54 PM.
