Winter Weather Cancels Flights, Leads to Death in Texas

DALLAS (AP) — Winter weather brought ice to Texas and nearby states Tuesday, causing the cancellation of more than 1,300 flights nationwide and bringing traffic to a standstill on an interstate through Arkansas.

Numerous auto collisions were reported in Austin, Texas, with at least one fatality according to the Austin Fire Department. In Travis County Texas, which includes Austin, police and sheriff’s deputies have been responding to new crashes about every three minutes since 8 a.m., according to the Austin-Travis County Traffic Report Page.

More than 700 flights to or from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and more than 200 to or from Dallas Love Field were canceled or delayed Tuesday, according to the tracking service FlightAware. At Dallas-Fort Worth, a major U.S. airport hub, more than 40% of the flights had been canceled.

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines has canceled more than 300 flights and delayed nearly 100 more, FlightAware reported.

In Arkansas, Interstate 40 Tuesday morning was ice-coated and “extremely hazardous” in the Forrest City area, according to the city’s fire department. Pictures posted on social media showed the crumpled cab of a semi-trailer.

“When I-40 shuts down like that, that can be hours of waiting,” said John Gadberry, who lives in Colt, Arkansas, not far from the highway. “I-40 is usually one of the first things that freezes over due to its slight elevation.”

By late Tuesday morning, I-40 was cleared and traffic had resumed, the Arkansas Department of Transportation announced. The interstate connects Little Rock, Arkansas, to Memphis, Tennessee.

The storm began Monday as part of an expected “several rounds” of wintry precipitation through Wednesday across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard.

“Generally light to moderate freezing rain resulting in some pretty significant ice amounts,” Chenard said.

“We’re expecting ice accumulations potentially a quarter inch or higher as far south as Austin, Texas, up to Dallas over to Little Rock, Arkansas, towards Memphis, Tennessee, and even getting close to Nashville, Tennessee,” according to Chenard.

The flight disruptions follow Southwest’s meltdown in December that began with a winter storm but continued after most other airlines had recovered. Southwest canceled about 16,700 flights over the last 10 days of the year, and the U.S. Transportation Department is investigating.

The weather service has issued a winter storm warning for a large swath of Texas and parts of southeastern Oklahoma and an ice storm warning across the midsection of Arkansas into western Tennessee.

A winter weather advisory is in place in much of the remainder of Arkansas and Tennessee and into much of Kentucky, West Virginia and southern parts of Indiana and Ohio.

Schools and colleges in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas planned to close or go to virtual learning Tuesday.

Top photo: A vehicle rests on a barricade as the driver lost control and slid off Highway 6 on Tuesday Jan. 31, 2023 in Waco, Texas. Winter weather brought ice to Texas and nearby states Tuesday. (Jerry Larson/Waco Tribune-Herald via AP)