By AccuWeather staff writer
Published Feb. 3, 2022 6:29 PM CST | Updated Feb. 3, 2022 9:05 PM CST
Ice plagued a large swath of the United States by Thursday evening as the multifaced storm continued its trek, contributing to power outages and life-threatening travel conditions across the nation.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 17 counties Thursday evening, saying, "This ice storm poses an imminent threat of severe property damage, injury, or loss of life," as temperatures plunged into the low 20s across a large portion of the state and various forms of frozen precipitation accumulated.
Texas was one of the numerous states impacted by an expansive winter storm that disrupted air travel across the country and led to mayhem on the roads, resulting in at least one fatality, according to officials.
Denton County, where AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell had previously reported on the storm, was listed as one of the counties included in the disaster declaration on Thursday.
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"Everything is turning into an icy glaze," Wadell had said in a report for the AccuWeather TV network earlier while holding a small tree branch encased in ice. The tree it had come from was no different. "Especially when the wind blows, you can hear that crunch a little bit. We know this is just getting started."
The storm slowed air travel at airports in Texas, Illinois, Colorado and Ohio, with Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport seeing over 1,400 arrival and departure cancellations with at least another 156 flights delayed Thursday, according to FlightAware. In total, over 5,200 flights in the U.S. were canceled on Thursday following the cancelation of all inbound American Airlines flights to Dallas-Fort Worth later that evening.
The airline confirmed with Wadell that the flights had been canceled due to deteriorating weather conditions, which it expects to impact Friday's flights as well.
"The winter storm is having a significant impact on our DFW operation. Due to conditions at the airport, the remainder of flights bound for DFW this evening have been canceled and we anticipate additional impact through tomorrow morning," a spokesperson told Wadell. "We apologize to our customers whose travel plans may be affected and want to thank our team who is working tirelessly to help safely care for our customers.”
Snow falls on a ground crew working outside a parked plane at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in Grapevine, Texas, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022. A major winter storm with millions of Americans in its path is spreading rain, freezing rain and heavy snow further across the country. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
The ensuing ice tested the mettle of Texas' power grid after the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) had declared most of its electric generation units and transmission facilities fully winterized following last February's deep freeze event.
Local power outages -- having more to do with winds and icing conditions interfering with power lines rather than power generators going offline like during last February -- tallied roughly 70,000 customers throughout the state by Thursday morning, according to The Associated Press.
The icy conditions had already proven to be deadly on Wednesday after the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office (BCSO) in New Mexico reported a fatality in a rollover crash on a mountainous road just outside of Albuquerque. Officials closed the road following the accident, saying conditions were extremely icy and snow-packed. Throughout the day, the BCSO reported at least 24 vehicle crashes, 13 of which there were reported injuries, plus four rolled vehicles.
A second fatality was reported on Thursday, this time on the warmer side of the storm after severe weather developed in western Alabama. Hale County Emergency Management Director Russell Weeden told WVTM13 that a radar-confirmed tornado had left one woman dead and at least eight other people injured. Three of the victims were in critical condition and the other five had minor injuries.
A large swath of winter storm warnings stretching from Texas to Maine had heralded the storm as it pushed eastward.
By Thursday evening, over 200,000 customers across the U.S. found themselves without power, with the majority concentrated in western Tennessee. Over 137,000 customers in the state found themselves without power, and in Memphis, the ice-encased trees, slicked roads and even obscured traffic camera footage as icicles formed on them.
Icicles cling to traffic cameras in Memphis, Tennessee. (Tennessee Department of Transportation)
Cities like Taos, New Mexico; Security, Colorado; Macomb, Illinois; and New London, Missouri; all saw over a foot of snowfall from the storm by Thursday evening.
While Bella Vista, Arkansas, didn’t see totals tally quite as high, it did see an astounding 9 inches of snow, the highest total in the state thus far.
Farther north, Flint, Michigan, set a new daily maximum snowfall record Wednesday as snow piled up to 11 inches, breaking the old record of 8. inches set in 2011. Detroit also set a new daily maximum snowfall record with 6.2 inches on Wednesday, surpassing the old record of 4.3 inches also recorded in 2011.
Temperatures plummeted across much of the central U.S. as a strong cold front pushed across the region during the week.
"For much of the region, this is the coldest air of the season so far and, in fact, many places saw near record-breaking temperatures, but very few broke official records," AccuWeather Meteorologist Maxwell Gawryla said, adding that most of the central U.S. from the Dakotas into Texas saw a gradual drop in temperatures throughout the day of generally 20 to 30 degrees. Farther east, some sites in Kentucky reported temperatures dropping roughly 15 degrees in under half an hour.
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