Brrr....

[Miguel]

Good grief! A 60 degree temperature drop within a two day span of time in Dallas?????

Yep, quite the change.

Dallas Morning News (.com):

Accidents piling up on highways, multiple school districts cancel Friday classes

Update at 10:36 p.m.: First, the good news: Much of the freezing rain in the area is turning into sleet, which will keep ice from accumulating on power lines. At least that’s the story from Fort Worth to Denton, where there have been quarter-inch accumulations over the last couple of hours.

In Dallas, bridges and overpasses are beginning to ice over, as evidenced by the myriad accidents being reported below. Everything else is encased in ice too; but, for now, the roads are just wet as temperatures hover around the freezing mark.

But that will change overnight, says Ted Ryan, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Fort Worth office.

“The precipitation will increase and continue till 6 a.m., maybe as late as 8, and when the sun comes up there should be 1/4 inch of ice on the ground and an inch of sleet on top of that. And what that will do ice ice over all the roads.”

The transition to sleet’s good news for those seeing it. “Freezing rain,” says Barker, “is the worst thing you can have. It causes legitimate destruction to trees and houses and cars. Sleet is better, and the fact a lot has gone to sleet is good news in terms of outages. But we’re concerned about areas north of Dallas, in McKinney and Bonham, which will get some pretty bad icing that may bring those trees down.”

What you’ll need to know when you wake up is simple: “The whole area will struggle with travel issues. Hopefully people won’t lose power, but everything is going as planned — pretty much iced-over roads in the morning, which is why school district canceled classes.”

And the temperature is expected to stay well below freezing all day tomorrow — and Saturday too, when a second, lighter round of precip is due.

“The ice will stick around all day,” says Barker. “We’re not used to that, but that’s how it’ll be tomorrow — it’s not going to get better.”