Fort Worth winter storm worries eased so far by minimal outages, moderate conditions
Apprehension fueled by last winter’s disastrous storm cloaked Dallas-Fort Worth along with the ice and snow that fell in the area Wednesday and Thursday, but conditions seemed relatively steady as of Thursday afternoon.
A winter storm warning was in effect until 6 p.m. Thursday. Roads were hazardous for travel throughout the day as snow, sleet and freezing rain fell in North Texas from Wednesday night to Thursday morning. Snow began to fall in earnest in parts of Fort Worth at about 10:30 a.m., but stopped by about noon.
Roads are expected to remain hazardous Friday morning, when the coldest temperatures of the week are forecast. Little to no additional ice accumulation is expected, but with lows in the teens and a high of 32 forecast Friday, it likely won’t get warm enough to melt.
The high on Thursday was about 26 degrees with wind chills between 5 and 10 degrees and wind gusts up to 30 mph. One to three inches of sleet and snow fell across the region Thursday, with higher totals farther into North Texas.
Texas’ power grid manager projects that the state will have enough electricity to meet demand during the aftermath of the winter storm. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the flow of electricity for most of the state, reported Thursday that the grid was operating under normal conditions with sufficient power for current demand. Peak demand is estimated to happen at 8 a.m. Friday, when the temperature is expected to be 17 degrees in the Fort Worth area.
The frigid weather this week is not expected to last for nearly as long as it did last year, when millions of Texans lost power for days. The National Weather Service predicted freezing temperatures would last two days instead of seven — but many residents prepared for the worst-case scenarios regardless.
Preparations
The pipes at Elizabeth Steadman’s Fort Worth home are still wrapped from last winter. During the 2021 winter storm, Steadman, her husband and son lost power for five days. Their house dropped to 48 degrees as they ran out of firewood and water. Going into this week, Steadman, 60, felt anxious her family would lose power again. But she also felt prepared enough to lessen much of that anxiety.
The family stocked up on firewood, water and blankets. Remembering the birds that froze to death in mid-flight in front of their home last February, Steadman trapped the stray, feral kitten living in their backyard and brought her inside on Wednesday.
“Even though they have said they have fixed the grid, we get power outages now and then even when it’s not bad weather. Realistically, we could still have that happen,” Steadman said.
The Steadmans were not the only ones who filled their carts and homes with necessities.
Grocery store shelves ran bare of everything from bread to alcohol. City officials reminded people to care for pets, plants and pipes. The City of Fort Worth advised residents to keep extra water on hand in case of a main break or a frozen pipe, and the Texas Department of Insurance suggested Texans wrap exposed pipes to keep them insulated.
On Wednesday evening, the sky started to spit freezing rain and sleet in Fort Worth. Temperatures around 24, with winds around 15 mph and as high as 25 mph, froze the precipitation on roads, trees and cars. The National Weather Service reported that 0.97 of an inch of precipitation fell over six hours.
Power outages
On Thursday, snow and sleet continued intermittently throughout the day.
As Thursday dawned, about 30,000 Texans woke without power. Hunt County reported the most customers without power in North Texas, with over 6,400 Oncor outages at about 8:30 a.m. Collin County followed with the second highest in the region with over 4,800 reported outages.
Ahead of the winter storm, Oncor brought in additional resources and 1,500 utility workers from across 10 other states to assist with power restoration efforts. By 10:30 a.m., Tarrant County reported about 2,447 outages. That number dropped to 1,491 by 1:45 p.m.
Last year, there was little warning or indication the power outages could last as long as they did. The failure of the power grid taught a hard lesson that Steadman and her family learned from; they cannot always count on the government to help them.
“There is a grand possibility that nobody is going to come to our rescue — they didn’t last year,” she said. “So what can I do to help my family and maintain the safety of my own family?”
Gov. Greg Abbott and other officials expressed confidence in power grid preparations on Tuesday during a press conference. They cautioned there could be outages resulting from ice on power lines or trees falling on them and walked through preparations for winter weather that have been taken in recent months and days.
Steadman said while she knows outages could still happen, it was a relief to hear state officials acknowledge potential problems and discuss solutions.
“Just knowing that they’re aware of that possibility and they’re putting things in place to help, I think it makes a difference,” she said.
‘A good snow day’
With school canceled, several families in Fort Worth’s Fairmount neighborhood used the snow day to their advantage. At a home on 5th Avenue, Fabian Lopez watched as two young boys in his family scooped snow with shovels. One of the boys poured the shovelful onto the hood of a car parked in front of the house.
Lopez, who has lived in the home for 15 years, said they were not particularly worried about the winter weather causing problems since they did not lose power last year. They made sure the external pipes were wrapped and they had enough food and water.
A few blocks away, Maddie and Cory Churchman played with their 2-year-old, Sophie, in the yard. Their neighbors sledded down the driveway behind them.
“We always love a good snow day, as long as we can keep it warm inside our house,” Sophie Churchman said.
The family did not lose power last year, but they did host many people who did. They went shopping, covered their water hose spigot and left their faucets dripping.
Closures
All Tarrant County school districts, including Fort Worth ISD and Arlington ISD, announced cancellations by Wednesday in preparation for the weather.
Businesses and services from Billy Bob’s to blood banks closed their doors for the day. Closures included Fort Worth and Keller libraries, and city offices in Burleson, Carrollton, Haltom City, Bedford, Arlington and more.
At one arena, the show stampeded on — The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo said all its events, from Wednesday into the weekend, would continue as scheduled.
Travel
Most roads and highways in the region remained “passable” Thursday, but officials encourage residents not to drive unless it’s an emergency.
MedStar reported that between 3 p.m. Wednesday to 5:30 a.m. Thursday, the ambulance service responded to 26 crashes with an injury, which was up 173% from the same time last week.
Runways at DFW Airport were non-operational Thursday morning amid winter weather conditions, and more than 500 departing flights were canceled.
The Dallas Area Rapid Transit suspended its operations from Thursday through Sunday afternoon.
On Feb. 11, 2021, six people died in a massive, 130-car pileup on the I-35W TEXpress lanes. In preparation for the bad weather, officials closed the toll lanes for Thursday.
“The entire DFW Managed Lane System is being closed due to the impending severe winter weather storm,” NTE Mobility Partners spokesperson Robert Hinkle said in a Wednesday email. “In coordination with TxDOT, we closed the managed lanes throughout the region so that we can focus our efforts and resources on the main lanes of travel.” A spokesperson for TxDOT’s Fort Worth region said it’s unclear how long the lanes will remain closed.
This story was originally published February 3, 2022 at 2:54 PM.
