Weather News

Latest Dallas-Fort Worth freezing spell sticking around another day

Please warm up over freezing, thank you.

Photo courtesy of Oxygen Concentrator

Dallas-Fort Worth is hunkered down under a thin but lethal layer of ice, with sleet and freezing rain expected to prevail through Thursday, February 24.

The area is under a winter storm warning until 6 pm Thursday. It was originally predicted to hit 38 degrees on Thursday, but unfortunately is now forecast to not get much above freezing. Dreamy meteorologist Kyle Roberts says there will be "minimal melting."

WFAA is ruling with updates that include not only radar but also a weather person pointing to a TV screen showing images of stuff happening on Facebook. They have it covered.

FOX 4 says a "light, but study round" of freezing drizzle is expected to fall throughout the morning. (Surely they mean "steady" and not study.)

Roads
Everyone is being warned to stay off the roads to prevent inevitable accidents like this one on Harry Hines Boulevard, or this backup on Royal Lane at US-75. The Dallas Police Department said it had responded to nearly 500 crashes as of 5 pm Wednesday.

Team of truck drivers with the City of Dallas Department of Public Works have been out for 48 hours using sand trucks to de-ice bridges, crossovers, and streets.

For the best and most up-to-date compendium of collisions and other roadway snafus, watch community news site DallasTexasTV.

Dallas public transit
Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) has extended "Operating Scenario 2" of their Severe Winter Weather Operating Plans through the end of the day on Thursday, February 24. DART rail operations remain suspended. To replace the rail service, they'll operate 14 shuttle bus routes between rail stations that will run every 45 minutes. DART bus routes will operate on a Sunday schedule from 5 am-9 pm. DART will determine a service restoration timeline based on weather conditions. The Dallas Streetcar will not operate at this time, but there will be a shuttle bus running to and from EBJ Union Station and the Bishop Arts District, making all stops.

DART transit centers will be open from 5 am-9 pm, manned by DART staff:

Addison Transit Center
Arapaho Center Station
Buckner Station
Central Business District (CBD) West Transfer Center
Central Business District (CBD) East Transfer Center
Downtown Garland Station
Downtown Irving/Heritage Crossing Station
J.B. Jackson, Jr. Transit Center
Lake June Station
Ledbetter Station
Parker Road Station
South Garland Transit Center
Cockrell Hill Transfer Location will be available between 6 am-2 pm.

The Operating Scenario 2 shuttle bus routes are available on the DART website at www.dart.org/winterweather.

Fort Worth public transit
Trinity Railway Express (TRE) is operating on a Saturday schedule.

Trinity Metro bus routes will run on a Saturday schedule on Thursday February 24, with the following exceptions:

No service on Molly the Trolley
No service on The Dash
No Route 31/CentrePort Circulator
No Routes 23, 30, 111, Burnett Plaza Lunch Line, Express Routes 61, 63, 65, 66 & 67

TEXRail will operate on its regular schedule. TRE will operate on a Saturday schedule. ACCESS paratransit will be available for life-sustaining trips.

Customer care representatives will be available by phone at 817-215-8600.

DFW Airport
FlightAware reported 1,057 total cancellations at DFW on Thursday, following Wednesday when more than 1,000 flights were canceled.

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Texas shocks as America's No. 3 least safe state in 2026 report

Photo by Hiroshi Kimura on Unsplash

Texas ranks as the 48th "safest" state — out of 50.

While no state is invulnerable, some do more to protect their residents than others. And a new study has declared Texas one of the five least safe states in America.

WalletHub's "Safest States in America (2026)" report examined all 50 states for their emergency preparedness and for residents' personal and residential, financial, workplace, and road safety. Factors that weighed into the rankings include specific crime rates per capita, the share of the population that is uninsured, road quality ratings, workplace injury statistics, and more.

Texas ranked at the bottom of the list as the 48th "safest" state — or the third least safe state. It's joined by several other Southern states, like Mississippi (No. 50), Louisiana (No. 49), Florida (No. 47), and Arkansas (No. 46).

According to WalletHub, Texas specifically ranks third to last in the nationwide "emergency preparedness" category, which was determined based on the prevalence of climate disasters causing $1 billion or more in damages from 1980-2024, and the loss amount resulting from those disasters.

The Lone Star State also ranked 40th (or 10th worst) across three safety categories: personal and residential safety, financial safety, and road safety. The report additionally found that Texas has the highest rate of uninsured residents nationally.

Texas' "workplace safety" was the state's highest-ranking category, landing 30th nationally.

Additional rankings that determined Texas' overall safety include:

No. 30 – Assaults per capita
No. 32 – Fatal occupational injuries per 100,000 full-time workers
No. 32 – Sex offenders per capita
No. 35 – Murders and non-negligent manslaughters per capita
No. 36 – Fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles of travel
No. 41 – Loss amounts from climate disasters per capita

According to the report, the five safest states in America are all located in the Northeast. Vermont leads as the country's safest state in 2026, followed by Massachusetts (No. 2), Maine (No. 3), New Hampshire (No. 4), and Connecticut (No. 5).

Though every state has varying levels of safety, WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo asserted that the safest places in the U.S. categorically invest in protecting their residents. Top-ranking states have low crime rates and diligently maintain their road infrastructure, and other states that prioritize their residents' safety have "strong economies and job markets that prevent people from falling into dangerous financial situations."

"[The safest states in America] have high levels of occupational safety and disaster preparedness, too," Lupo said. "In addition, states are made safer by efforts that individual residents take, such as forming a neighborhood watch or working in firefighting and EMT jobs at high rates."

safety texas wallethub reports