Weekend winter weather has officially washed over Texas. Here’s what’s going on around the Lone Star State:
Dallas-Fort Worth and North Texas
North Texas appears to be the hardest hit area of the state. As of 9 a.m. Saturday, the Dallas-Fort Worth area is experiencing below freezing temperatures of around 25-29 degrees.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS), “a mix of freezing rain and sleet will affect most of the area, including isolated occurrences heavy thundersleet at times.” Some snow is anticipated by Sunday morning.
Most state power outages are happening up north. A little after 9 a.m. Saturday, PowerOutage.com reported 812 power outages in Dallas County out of 1,149,389 tracked customers. A little over 680 of these outages are with Oncor while 130 are with Garland Power & Light. Tarrant County has 980 outages out of 979,569 tracked customers.
Far north counties near the Oklahoma border, including Lamar County, Red River County, Bowie County, Cass County and Titus County, each have over 1,000 outages. Lamar and Bowie are experiencing an extremely high number of outages with over 4,000 impacted customers each, beat out only by Rusk County’s 6,407 powerless customers near the Louisiana border in East Texas.
At a little after 9.m. Saturday, FlightAware reported the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is among those with the most cancellations in the country. Just over 660 departures have been cancelled, and just over 630 arrivals have been cancelled. At Dallas Love Field Airport, 94 departing flights and 92 arriving flights have been cancelled.
Austin
Temperatures in Austin are a bit warmer than up north at around 36 degrees. According to the NWS, a winter storm warning and winter weather advisories are in place until noon on Sunday. The city is also experiencing “dangerous icing on roads that will likely persist through the weekend.”
At around 9:30 a.m. Saturday in Travis County, a reported seven customers are experiencing power outages out of 731,295 tracked customers, according to PowerOutage.com. Three of those outages are with Austin Energy, and four are with Oncor. In Williamson County, which sits just north of Tarrant County, 10 customers are without power — five with Oncor, four with Pedernales Electric Cooperative and one with Georgetown Utility Systems.
Hays County and Bastrop County both have two reported outages.
According to FlightAware, the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport has cancelled 44 departing flights and 77 arriving flights as of around 9:30 a.m.
San Antonio
The NWS’s winter storm warning and winter weather advisories, as well as its word of caution about icy roads, extends from Austin into San Antonio. Temperatures are warmer there at around 40 degrees.
In Bexar County, 516 of 952,577 tracked customers are without power from CPS Energy as of around 9:45 a.m. All surrounding counties have either no or just a couple of outages except for Medina County, which is experiencing 87 outages.
The San Antonio International Airport has a low number of cancellations with 19 cancelled departures and 30 cancelled arrivals as of around 9:45 a.m. Saturday, according to FlightAware.
Rest of Texas
Far south Texas, including Brownsville and McAllen, are safe from the winter storm, boasting temperatures in the 70s. On the opposite side of the state, up north in the panhandle, conditions are not quite as warm. Lubbock sits at 10 degrees just before 10 a.m. Saturday with snow and ice on the ground. Amarillo is experiencing 1-degree temperatures.
Lubbock County is experiencing 1,436 power outages out of 130,712 tracked customers, according to PowerOutage.com.
In Houston, temperatures are around 50 degrees just before 10 a.m. Saturday. Harris County has a reported 519 customers without power out of 2,367,470 tracked customers. All are with CenterPoint Energy. Brazoria County has 163 outages, and Galveston County has 114 outages.
El Paso is experiencing rain and temperatures in the mid-40s. Outages in El Paso county number 103, and nearby Reeves County has 153 outages.