February winter storm Feb 1-4

We had a very intense mid-level shortwave eject through North Texas last Tuesday (Feb 1) and we received about 1-1.5" of sleet in my area (NW Fort Worth).  After the vort max passed through, it dragged a very strong cold front behind it.  Temperatures plunged from the 50's pre-front to the 20's post-frontal.  On top of the sleet, we also received about an inch of snow.  The storm lifted to the northeast and dumped snow of over a foot throughout areas from Oklahoma to Chicago. 

The frozen precip pretty much shut down all of the DFW metroplex.  All area ISD's shut down and travel on all roads was dangerous.  Cloudy skies that hung around for several days helped little with melting of the ice.  That which did melt/sublimate just refroze overnight, making driving the next morning impossible in some locations.  Ft. Worth ISD and all private schools (including the school I teach for.....Fort Worth Academy) shut down for the remainder of the week.  Yeah!!

To make matters worse, another shortwave moved from SW TX and over our area Thursday night (2/3/11) and dumped anywhere from 1-6" of snow across the DFW metroplex.  Here is a link LINK to a map of snowfall storm reports across the area. 

It is now Saturday (2/5/11) and the sun is out in full today.  We warmed up above the freezing mark at around 10 am this morning.  This marks a period of 103 hours of below freezing weather over at DFW airport.  Here is what the NWS FTW posted about the cold snap:

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"10 AM observation at DFW was above freezing. This was the first time the temperature was above freezing since 3 AM Tuesday, resulting in 103 total hours below freezing. This is the longest streak since 1997. See the PNS issued Feb. 1 (http://www.srh.noaa.gov/product.php?site=FWD&issuedby=FWD&product=PNS&format=ci&version=1) for more information regarding long cold stretches."

The cold weather has put a damper on Super Bowl activities this week.  People have even been injured by falling ice from the Cowboys stadium!!  It even looks like we may have another front come through the area tomorrow morning (gameday) and looks like -FZRA and -SN are awaiting us.  Luckily this system is not very strong and accumulations should be <1".  Below is a graphic put out by the NWS on tomorrow's weather: