The sun came out Monday, but it didn’t do much to warm the millions of Texans who were struggling without power.
The temperature at DFW International Airport reached a high of 14 degrees shortly after 4 p.m. — one degree lower than the previous record low for the day, and not nearly enough to clear the 4 or so inches of snow that fell Sunday.
And before people had a good chance to steady themselves, more snow was on its way to add to the slick conditions that have made even short trips from home treacherous, according to the National Weather Service.
After reaching a record low of 4 degrees Monday, temperatures were expected to drop into the single digits again Tuesday, and the wind will make it feel more like minus 15 degrees, according to Jason Dunn, a Weather Service meteorologist.
Dallas-Fort Worth was under a wind-chill warning through noon Tuesday — the first warning of its kind in North Texas.
“The cold wind chills could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes,” the Weather Service said. “Avoid outside activities if possible.”
The next round of wintry weather is expected to move into Texas by Tuesday afternoon, crossing the Red River before driving south toward Dallas, Dunn said.
Areas north of Interstate 20 could get 3 to 5 more inches of snow.
“This should be mainly a freezing rain and/or sleet mix, which could result in additional significant icing especially south of the metroplex,” Dunn said.
After a winter storm warning expired Monday morning, the National Weather Service issued another one for all of Dallas-Fort Worth. The new warning, scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday to 6 a.m. Thursday, urged North Texans to avoid travel and warned more power outages were likely.
1/33Snow covers US 75 heading into Downtown in Dallas on Monday morning, Feb. 15, 2021. (Juan Figueroa/ The Dallas Morning News)(Juan Figueroa / Staff photographer)
2/33Dan Bryant and his wife Anna huddle by the fire with sons Benny, 3, and Sam, 12 weeks, along with their dog Joey, also wearing two doggie sweaters, with power out and temperatures dropping inside their home after a winter storm brought snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021, in Garland. The Bryant’s, who lost power Monday morning, were wearing outdoor winter clothes, down to snow boots, hat, and ski pants, and even their dog Joey had two doggie sweaters. More than 2 million Texans were without power after the winter storm prompted outages. (Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News)(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
3/33(From left) brothers Alfredo Colon and Eduardo Colon chat over a fire in front of their East Dallas home on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. The family lost their power during the night at around 2am. “It feels better out here than it does in there,” Alfredo said. (Juan Figueroa/ The Dallas Morning News)(Juan Figueroa / Staff photographer)
4/33Mia Donjuan, 4, wipes off of her pan as she slides down a hill in the Dallas Elmwood neighborhood on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. (Juan Figueroa/ The Dallas Morning News)(Juan Figueroa / Staff photographer)
5/33Jacinta comes in for a close up at a snow covered Griggs Park in Uptown Dallas on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. (Juan Figueroa/ The Dallas Morning News)(Juan Figueroa / Staff photographer)
6/33A tiny flower sticks out of the snow as a winter storm brings freezing temperatures to North Texas on Monday, February 15, 2021, in Dallas.(Lola Gomez/The Dallas Morning News)(Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer)
7/33Andre Cavazos is brought down by Wesley Hart as they play football with other friends from J.J. Pearce High School at Prairie Creek Park after winter storm brought snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021, in Richardson. (Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News)(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
8/33Icicles hang over a Texas license plate on a car after winter storm brought snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021, in Richardson. (Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News)(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
9/33Elm Street is quiet in front of the Cambria Hotel as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas. Sleet and light snow have arrived in North Texas early Sunday ahead of what is expected to be one of the worst winter storms in recent memory.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
10/33An American Airlines jet is de-iced at DFW International Airport before takeoff as winter flurries arrive in Irving on Sunday, February 14, 2021 ahead of major snowstorm.(Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer)
11/33Flight status boards show all flights cancelled at Dallas Love Field as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas. By evening all commercial flights were cancelled and all ticket counters were closed at the airport.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
12/33Idle Southwest Airlines planes sits at gates at Dallas Love Field as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas. By evening all commercial flights were cancelled and all ticket counters were closed at the airport.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
13/33Blowing snow obscures people walking along Bryan Streen near the Pearl/Arts District station as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
14/33Traffic moves through snow on US-75 near the High Five interchange as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas. A winter storm watch has been issued for all of North Texas, including Dallas, Denton, Collin and Tarrant counties and will be in effect from late Saturday through Monday afternoon.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
15/33A woman walks a dog on Thomas Avenue near Griggs Park as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
16/33Victor Escamilla looks down the tracks as people wait in driving snow at the Pearl/Arts District station as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas. DART suspended all rail operations Sunday night.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
17/33Traffic moves through snow on US-75 near the High Five interchange as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas. A winter storm watch has been issued for all of North Texas, including Dallas, Denton, Collin and Tarrant counties and will be in effect from late Saturday through Monday afternoon. (Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News)(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
18/33A man walks his dog across Hillcrest near Lovers lane as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in University Park. A winter storm watch has been issued for all of North Texas, including Dallas, Denton, Collin and Tarrant counties and will be in effect from late Saturday through Monday afternoon.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
19/33John Bain and his son, Everett, 3, sled down a hill on a paddleboard in the snow at Flag Pole Hill Park on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas.(Lynda M. González / Staff Photographer)
20/33With the afternoon temperature hovering around 18 degrees F, with a wind chill of 4, Caroline and Peter Clark, of East Dallas, embrace the snowy Valentines Day weather by cross country skiing together in their Cochran Heights neighborhood, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021 in Dallas. As temperatures dropped to near-record lows Sunday, electricity operators warned that demand could overwhelm the state’s power grid and force rotating power outages.(Michael Hamtil / Staff photographer)
21/33People walk past frozen fountains on Hillcrest near Lovers lane as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in University Park. A winter storm watch has been issued for all of North Texas, including Dallas, Denton, Collin and Tarrant counties and will be in effect from late Saturday through Monday afternoon.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
22/33Mae, 9, and Vaughn, 11, Scrogginthorpe get a push from their dad Micah Scrogginthorpe they sled in the empty street front of the home in Richardson as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021. A winter storm watch has been issued for all of North Texas, including Dallas, Denton, Collin and Tarrant counties and will be in effect from late Saturday through Monday afternoon.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
23/33A car crash on TX-12 Loop Northwest near Shady Brook Ln as winter flurries arrive in Dallas on Sunday, February 14, 2021 ahead of major snowstorm.(Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer)
24/33The water is frozen over at the cattle drive statues at The Plaza in front of the Dallas Convention Center in downtown Dallas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas. The region is currently under a winter storm warning.(Lynda M. González / Staff Photographer)
25/33A person walks through snow past AT&T Discovery District in Downtown Dallas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021. The region is currently under a winter storm warning.(Lynda M. González / Staff Photographer)
26/33Light traffic on TX-12 Loop Northwest as it continues to snow and temperatures keep dropping in Dallas on Sunday, February 24, 2021.(Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer)
27/33Owen Hulme (right) douses his brother Mitchell Hulme with a sled full of snow while sledding down a steep snow-covered street in North Arlington, Sunday evening, February 14, 2021.(Tom Fox / Staff Photographer)
28/33Wyatt Wheeler wipes out as he sleds down a steep snow-covered street in North Arlington, Sunday, February 14, 2021.(Tom Fox / Staff Photographer)
29/33Miryea Gist (left) and Mikaela Dudley wait in heavy snow to cross Mockingbird Lane near Dallas Love Field as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas. Gist and Dudley were stranded at the airport when their flight home to Phoenix was cancelled, and with the airport closed, and no services open, they made roughly one mile walk to a QuikTrip store just to find food.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
30/33Valentines Day themed windows at the Neiman Marcus flagship store downtown are framed by snowy streets as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
31/33With temperatures already falling into the single digits homeless person sleeps in the doorway of the Majestic Theater as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
32/33A man is illuminated by a streetlight as he walks a dog along Harwood Street as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
33/33A lone car is covered in snow in a downtown parking lot as a winter storm brings snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, in Dallas.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
‘A really historic event’
Gov. Greg Abbott deployed the National Guard across the state Monday to check on people and help take those in need to warming centers.
To clear roads and help essential workers, Abbott also deployed resources including 3,300 state troopers and 3,300 patrol vehicles, as well as workers with the Texas A&M Forest Service, the state’s Military, Parks and Wildlife and Transportation departments and the Texas Emergency Medical Task Force.
President Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration Sunday for Texas, adding federal aid to state and local response efforts.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins declared a local declaration of disaster Monday evening, which will last up to a week unless extended.
In an executive order accompanying the declaration, Jenkins urged nonessential businesses to delay their opening time to 10 a.m. and industrial and manufacturing businesses to close Tuesday if possible, or to shut down as many nonessential operations as they can.
The order also asks residents to set their thermostats no higher than 68 degrees, and it prohibits price gouging on groceries, toiletries, medicine, restaurant meals, hotel rooms and other goods and services.
Temperatures plunged into the single digits as far south as San Antonio, and officials in Harris County warned that the freeze could create problems on the scale of the hurricanes that slam the Gulf Coast every summer.
“We’re living through a really historic event,” said Jason Furtado, a professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma.
The winter storm was part of a massive system that brought snow, sleet and freezing rain to the southern Plains and was spreading across the Ohio Valley and to the Northeast.
Cities across the Midwest set record low temperatures. In Minnesota, the Hibbing/Chisholm weather station, about 175 miles north of Minneapolis, reached minus 38 degrees, while Sioux Falls, S.D., dropped to minus 26. Temperatures also broke records across Nebraska.
In Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear warned residents to stay off the road as up to 9 inches of snow was forecast for parts of the state. “It is slick and it is dangerous,” he said.
Disruptions
Most flights out of DFW International Airport and Dallas Love Field were stopped for a second day Monday. In Houston, runways at Bush Intercontinental Airport were scheduled to remain closed until Tuesday.
Fort Worth-based American Airlines canceled about 371 flights at DFW Airport, which is its primary hub responsible for funneling most of its traffic through the central United States. The cancellations nearly matched the 386 flights the airline halted Sunday.
At Dallas Love Field, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines canceled all flights until 1 p.m. to give time for runways and nearby roads to clear, spokeswoman Brandy King said. The airline was running a “thinned” schedule for the rest of the day.
Delta and Alaska Airlines canceled Monday morning flights out of Love Field, airport spokesman Chris Perry said.
It wasn’t much better nationwide, where airlines had canceled about 3,200 flights Monday, according to Flightaware.com.
Dallas-area water utilities were already receiving dozens of calls about frozen pipes early Monday, and the number rose as temperatures stayed below freezing. Residents were encouraged to keep faucets running to lower the risk of freezing.
In Grand Prairie, crews were having trouble fixing two water main breaks because of the extreme cold. However, neither break was causing major problems.
The power outages and dangerous road conditions forced many businesses to close Monday.
NorthPark Center and Golden Triangle Mall in Denton were closed all day, and the Galleria in Dallas shut down at noon. Many grocery stores, such as Kroger and Central Market, also planned to close early.
H-E-B, the state’s largest chain of grocery stores, closed locations around Austin and San Antonio, cities that have few resources to clear roads.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said some warming centers in his city had to be shut down because the locations lost power.
The severe cold was also causing problems for the state’s coronavirus vaccine distribution efforts. State health officials said Texas, which was set to receive more than 400,000 vaccine doses this week, now does not expect deliveries to occur until at least Wednesday.
In Houston, a power outage struck a facility that was holding 8,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine, and health officials scrambled to find people to inoculate even as authorities were telling residents to stay home. Doses were distributed to hospitals, a county jail and Rice University.
Risky roads
The Texas Department of Transportation said Monday that nearly every roadway in North Texas had some snow accumulation after Sunday’s storm.
Crews worked Monday to treat icy patches and plow, but TxDOT strongly discouraged people from hitting the streets and warned that traffic signals could be affected by power outages.
“Use caution at these intersections, and treat them as a four-way stop until power is restored,” TxDOT said in a written statement.
Dallas Area Rapid Transit suspended all light-rail service Sunday night and will not resume rail operations until Thursday morning.
DART buses, which were running on a Saturday schedule, suspended service Monday afternoon because of “deteriorating road conditions” across the region and were expected to resume service Tuesday morning.
Trinity Railway Express service was suspended from Monday night through Thursday morning. The Dallas streetcar was not running while DART operating on a winter-weather plan.