Frozen rain, snow and sleet covered North Texas, closing Southern Methodist University’s main campus and Plano campus and Dallas schools Tuesday.
DFW airport had shut down, canceling flights, Tuesday morning; however, they were up and running again around 8 a.m. This was the first time this airport had shut down since 9/11.
Dallas Love Field only had one open runway according to the FAA.
Across the United States more than 4,000 flights were canceled.
Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) was also suspended until around 2:30 p.m. when three rails returned back on schedule for the rest of the day.
The National Weather Service issued its first ever hard freeze warning for Dallas from 6 p.m. Tuesday until 10 a.m. Wednesday. A hard freeze warning is issued when unusually cold temperatures are expected, possibly causing exposed pipes to freeze and burst.
Authorities said people should travel only if it is necessary.
The National Weather Service warned, “Do not travel. Stay Inside…This is a life threatening storm.”
Temperatures were in the 20s and falling Tuesday evening and temperatures in the teens with a wind chill in the negatives were expected at night.
This winter storm swept across most of America Tuesday: More than 30 states were under the same weather warning and eight states had blizzard warnings, according to CNN.
People and media traveling to Dallas for the Super Bowl were affected by these weather conditions.
Tuesday was media day. However, interviews for the Super Bowl were able to take place inside the stadium, according to Dallasnews.com.
Forecasters predict Dallas Temperatures will rise to 60 degrees by gameday.
For SMU students, updates will be posted on the SMU website as well as on the Twitter feed at twitter.com/smu throughout the day, according to SMU’s Inclement Weather Policy.