Just wanted to share news of Dallas RECORD snowfall - the news this morning said that it broke records of over 100 years of recordkeeping.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/021210dnmetsnowhp.10be86105.html
Snowfall of more than 11 inches has North Texas seeing white
09:20 AM CST on Friday, February 12, 2010
By MICHAEL YOUNG, AVI SELK and JON NIELSEN / The Dallas Morning News
The snow arrived early and fell unceasingly, in furious flurries and tiny pellets and big, fat flakes, inch upon inch until the Great Snowstorm of 2010 became the stuff of legend, one for the record books.
By 9 p.m. Thursday, a record 9.4 inches of snow had fallen at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, smashing the area’s previous record for one calendar day of 7.8 inches, set in 1917 and matched in 1964.
“This has been an absolute amazing event,” said Jesse Moore, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.
Snow began falling at D/FW Airport at 3:53 a.m. and never let up throughout the day, Moore said. Alliance Airport in Fort Worth had piled up nearly 10 inches by 8 p.m.
Visually, Thursday’s snow was absolute perfection. But Friday brings the morning after. And what a morning this could be. “We’re here, monitoring weather conditions, and they indicate that from 11 p.m. [Thursday] through the morning, we’ll have below-freezing temperatures,” Mark Pettit, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation in Dallas, said Thursday afternoon. “All the snow that turned to slush will freeze, and we’ll have ice skating rinks out there.”
School districts around North Texas shut down early Thursday or canceled after-school activities. Many — including the Dallas Independent School District — announced they would be closed today or would open late.
Based on expected road conditions, that’s prudent, Pettit said.
“We’re telling people to stay home in the morning unless they have to travel,” he said. “If you have to go to work or to have a medical appointment you have to get to, give yourself extra time, drive a little slower, and put some space between you and the car in front.”
Crashes, DART delays
TxDOT Texas Department of Transportation crews were spreading a salt-and-sand mixture along highway shoulders to help keep the accumulated slush from freezing. Bridges and overpasses in particular could be precarious this morning, and local surface streets will probably be a frozen mess.
By mid-evening Thursday, Dallas Area Rapid Transit was experiencing delays up to 45 minutes on its rail lines, and at least 18 buses had become stuck on treacherous roads, said Morgan Lyons, an agency spokesman. DART planned to run its trains through the night to keep ice from accumulating on overhead wires, and crews were standing by to remove snow from stations and to spread sand on slick spots.
By 8 p.m., Dallas police had responded to 41 major and 132 minor accidents, said Sr. Cpl. Kevin Janse, a department spokesman. No fatalities or major injuries were reported.
Weather may have been a factor in a fatal two-car accident on FM548 near Forney, six miles north of U.S. Highway 80. Department of Public Safety troopers had no further details on the 3:30 p.m. crash.
More than expected
Thursday’s massive dump of snowfall seemed to catch even the experts by surprise.
“We had mentioned there could be a heavier band of snow coming along a line from Comanche [Texas] through Dallas to East Texas,” said Moore of the Weather Service. “But we weren’t expecting it to be quite as heavy as we received.”
Areas to the north and west of the Dallas area received 8 to 10 inches of snow before it tapered off to flurries overnight, and many of the northern suburbs saw almost as much.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/021210dnmetsnowhp.10be86105.html
Snowfall of more than 11 inches has North Texas seeing white
09:20 AM CST on Friday, February 12, 2010
By MICHAEL YOUNG, AVI SELK and JON NIELSEN / The Dallas Morning News
The snow arrived early and fell unceasingly, in furious flurries and tiny pellets and big, fat flakes, inch upon inch until the Great Snowstorm of 2010 became the stuff of legend, one for the record books.
By 9 p.m. Thursday, a record 9.4 inches of snow had fallen at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, smashing the area’s previous record for one calendar day of 7.8 inches, set in 1917 and matched in 1964.
“This has been an absolute amazing event,” said Jesse Moore, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.
Snow began falling at D/FW Airport at 3:53 a.m. and never let up throughout the day, Moore said. Alliance Airport in Fort Worth had piled up nearly 10 inches by 8 p.m.
Visually, Thursday’s snow was absolute perfection. But Friday brings the morning after. And what a morning this could be. “We’re here, monitoring weather conditions, and they indicate that from 11 p.m. [Thursday] through the morning, we’ll have below-freezing temperatures,” Mark Pettit, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation in Dallas, said Thursday afternoon. “All the snow that turned to slush will freeze, and we’ll have ice skating rinks out there.”
School districts around North Texas shut down early Thursday or canceled after-school activities. Many — including the Dallas Independent School District — announced they would be closed today or would open late.
Based on expected road conditions, that’s prudent, Pettit said.
“We’re telling people to stay home in the morning unless they have to travel,” he said. “If you have to go to work or to have a medical appointment you have to get to, give yourself extra time, drive a little slower, and put some space between you and the car in front.”
Crashes, DART delays
TxDOT Texas Department of Transportation crews were spreading a salt-and-sand mixture along highway shoulders to help keep the accumulated slush from freezing. Bridges and overpasses in particular could be precarious this morning, and local surface streets will probably be a frozen mess.
By mid-evening Thursday, Dallas Area Rapid Transit was experiencing delays up to 45 minutes on its rail lines, and at least 18 buses had become stuck on treacherous roads, said Morgan Lyons, an agency spokesman. DART planned to run its trains through the night to keep ice from accumulating on overhead wires, and crews were standing by to remove snow from stations and to spread sand on slick spots.
By 8 p.m., Dallas police had responded to 41 major and 132 minor accidents, said Sr. Cpl. Kevin Janse, a department spokesman. No fatalities or major injuries were reported.
Weather may have been a factor in a fatal two-car accident on FM548 near Forney, six miles north of U.S. Highway 80. Department of Public Safety troopers had no further details on the 3:30 p.m. crash.
More than expected
Thursday’s massive dump of snowfall seemed to catch even the experts by surprise.
“We had mentioned there could be a heavier band of snow coming along a line from Comanche [Texas] through Dallas to East Texas,” said Moore of the Weather Service. “But we weren’t expecting it to be quite as heavy as we received.”
Areas to the north and west of the Dallas area received 8 to 10 inches of snow before it tapered off to flurries overnight, and many of the northern suburbs saw almost as much.
