Blustery winter storm rolls over San Antonio

Roads

Updates on statewide road conditions and traffic will be available on the Texas Department of Transportation's Facebook page (txdot). The department also provides local updates on Twitter (TxDOTSanAntonio).

Drivers can also check the department's road condition webpage at drivetexas.org or call the highway condition line at 800-452-9292.

For non-emergency roadside assistance, call the Texas Department of Public Safety at 800-525-5555.

SAN ANTONIO Sleet, snow and freezing rain warnings prompted overnight closures and delays at area school districts, government offices and the airport Thursday and into Friday morning.

A strong winter storm blanketed South Central Texas, forcing the temperature in San Antonio from the morning's mid-50s to the low-30s by evening and dropping.

Temperatures are expected to remain in the 20s and low 30s Friday morning and will only rise to the lower 40s at most, said Jon W. Zeitler, science and operations officer for the National Weather Service's Austin and San Antonio office.

The wintry mix of precipitation should end around noon Friday, Zeitler said.

Meteorologists are predicting up to 1 inch of snow in the Hill Country. Accumulation mostly will occur north of San Antonio, Zeitler said.

Other areas should only see a dusting, he wrote in a statement.

Thin ice will form on bridges, overpasses, car roofs and windshields, but well-traveled roads should be in good condition.

By 9 p.m. Thursday, several bridges across Bexar County were beginning to ice over. The Texas Department of Transportation had monitored road conditions throughout the day. The Ice Plan Command Post at TransGuide was activated at 6 p.m. and crews began responding to icy conditions later in the evening.

By 10 p.m., the Interstate 10 and Loop 410 interchange, along with the U.S. 281 connection to Loop 1604 and the connector from U.S. 281 North to the airport were shut down due to ice. CPS Energy reported just under 8,000 customers affected by power outages caused by cold weather and wind. Crews rushed across the city to restore power to the hardest hit areas which included the West and Northwest Sides. Outages also were reported in the Southeast Side.

TxDOT advised drivers Thursday to stay at home during sleet and freezing rain. If people must drive, the department advised them to go slow and follow other vehicles at three times the normal distance.

Drivers should use extra caution on bridges, ramps, overpasses and shaded areas, which tend to freeze first, TxDOT said.

Most Bexar County school districts planned to send drivers out around 3 a.m. Friday to monitor road conditions and make a decision by 5 a.m. on whether to open schools. If schools close, they'll notify parents using local news media and their websites, Facebook and Twitter pages, parent robocall systems and in some cases, a phone tree of their employees.

School districts in the area have encouraged parents to check the websites of their children's schools for information on closures or delays. An updated list is also available on mySA.com.

Bexar County has asked all non-essential employees to start their day at 10 a.m. Friday.

Dozens of flights to and from San Antonio International Airport were canceled as the chill rolled in.

We anticipate that as we progress into the evening we'll see more, airport spokeswoman Nora Castro said while urging travelers to monitor their flight status through Friday morning for changes.

As of late Thursday afternoon, the majority of cancelations were arrivals, but Castro expected more canceled departures because of dropping temperatures and anticipated precipitation. The airport was preparing to treat runway and taxiway surfaces for ice.

She suggested affected travelers try to reschedule flights as soon as possible, saying there would be a lot of demand as travelers rebook once the storm passes.

The airport also was providing updates and tips on its Facebook

(SATairport) and Twitter (SAairport) pages, Castro said.

TxDOT spokeswoman Laura Lopez said crews were active throughout Bexar County, and urged motorists to use caution, go slower and keep an eye out for TxDOT crews working on roads.

Meanwhile, organizers of the 36th annual Cowboy Breakfast took Friday's frigid forecast in stride, fitting for an event celebrating trail riders of the Old West.

The unofficial kickoff for the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo will run an hour longer, in response to the possibility of sleet or freezing rain creating a hazard on bridges and overpasses, particularly north of the city. But longtime followers said the celebratory free breakfast has endured plenty of bad weather.

The colder it gets, the hotter the tacos and coffee seem to be, said Bill Massey, chairman of the Cowboy Breakfast Foundation, which provides scholarships to culinary arts students at St. Philip's College.

Temperatures once fell to the teens in the event's early days at Central Park Mall in the 1980s.

It rained, sleeted and it snowed all three, Massey recalled.

This year's event is in the parking lot of Cowboys Dancehall, 3030 N.E. Loop 410, at Interstate 35 North. Volunteers will begin serving breakfast at 4:30 a.m., but will keep serving through 9:30 a.m., or until all the free food, including 45,000 tacos and 5,000 pastries, is gone.

The event also features live music and a cow chip contest, now moved back an hour to 8 a.m. The breakfast draws up to 50,000 people, and always gets at least 30,000, even during freezes and heavy rain, Massey said.

It's been warm in recent years. We were due for a cold one, he added.

Staff Writer Lynn Brezosky contributed to this report.

amalik@express-news.net

Source: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Blustery-winter-storm-rolls-over-San-Antonio-5169230.php