North Texas braced for potentially dangerous wintry conditions and freezing temperatures as a powerful winter storm began moving into the area Friday.
Across Dallas-Fort Worth, officials and residents prepared for the storm, which is expected to cause plunging temperatures, strong winds and wintry precipitation for multiple days.
According to the National Weather Service’s Fort Worth office, forecasts call for up to half an inch of ice, with additional accumulations of 1 to 3 inches of snow across most of North Texas. The weather service, which has issued winter storm and extreme cold warnings, warned of possible power outages and that “travel could be impossible” in some areas.
Throughout Friday, temperatures are expected to fall as rain drenches the area. That precipitation will later transition to a mix of freezing rain and sleet after temperatures dip below freezing, according to forecasts. Over the weekend, temperatures are expected to become dangerously cold, dipping into the teens and single digits with bone-chilling wind chills. A thaw isn’t anticipated until early next week.
D-FW Weather Wise
Ahead of the storm, North Texas residents have swarmed grocery and home improvement stores to stock up on supplies. Local and state officials, meanwhile, have prepared warming shelters and treated roads with a saltwater brine.
Volunteer Don Carey, 61 of Richardson, left, sets up a stretcher at the inclement weather shelter in Fair Park, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, in Dallas. As dangerously cold temperatures are headed to North Texas this weekend, volunteers and employees from Austin Street Center and OurCalling set up hundreds of stretchers on Thursday at the inclement weather shelter in Fair Park.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
North Texas museums close, arts events canceled ahead of winter storm; professional sports games expected to happen
11:55 a.m.
While Dallas-area schools held classes Friday, many North Texas performing arts centers and museums began announcing closures and cancellations.
On Friday, the African American Museum will be closed. Late Night at the Museum at the Dallas Museum of Art was postponed until early February, while an exhibit at the Latino Cultural Center was rescheduled for January 30. Friday and Saturday performances by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra were also canceled.
Over the weekend, Dallas Contemporary, the Crow Museum of Asian Art, the Arlington Museum of Art and Kimbell Art Museum will all be closed. Concerts by the Dallas Opera and the Lone Star Wind Orchestra have been canceled or postponed.
The Dallas Stars were still expected to play their game against the Blues in Dallas on Friday night. The coach of the Mavericks said earlier this week that he didn’t expect Saturday’s home game against Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers to be postponed.
— Alyson Rodriguez, Uwa Ede-Osifo, SportsDay Staff
Rain falls in Dallas as D-FW, Oklahoma prepare for severe winter weather impacts
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By mid-morning, light rain was falling at DFW International Airport and Love Field with a temperature of 48 degrees. That cold rain is expected to last through Friday, forecasts by the National Weather Service’s Fort Worth office indicate, later transitioning to freezing rain and sleet by early Saturday.
Both North Texas and neighboring Oklahoma are expected to be hit hard by the winter storm, with both anticipating perilous roadway conditions and power outages from a combination of freezing rain, ice, sleet, snow and strong wind gusts. Texas and Oklahoma will both experience frigid cold from the massive storm, which will impact large swaths of the South, Midwest and Northeast.
Nationally, D-FW, Oklahoma, western Mississippi and northwestern Alabama are among the areas predicted to experience some of the severest effects of the storm.
While D-FW schools remained open Friday with cancellations for after-school activities, schools in Oklahoma and Houston were closed ahead of dangerous roadways and extreme cold.
— Lauren Caruba
A worker sprays deicing fluid on a Southwest Airlines plane at the gates of Dallas Love field after a winter storm moved through Dallas-Fort Worth on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, in Dallas. Southwest suspended all flights in and out of Dallas Love Field on Thursday due to the storm.
Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer
More than 1,000 flight cancellations at D-FW airports
8:55 a.m.
At DFW International Airport and Dallas Love Field, airlines have canceled more than 1,000 flights scheduled for Saturday, when winter weather conditions in North Texas are forecast to deteriorate.
Cancellations at DFW Airport had reached 1,036 shortly by 8:21 a.m., according to flight tracking site FlightAware, while Love Field had cut 136 flights.
With the worst of the storm expected to move through the area over the weekend, airlines anticipate major disruptions to air travel. American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, both D-FW based, are giving customers the chance to change their flights.
Fliers who become stranded at Dallas-area airports should keep an eye on their flight status and communications from airlines, pack snacks and be prepared to wait.
— Jordan Parker
This is a developing story and will be updated.
