Destructive southern ice storm from Texas to Tennessee
- A four-day ice storm ravaged parts of the south.
- Roads were impassable, trees were damaged, and power was out in parts of Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee.
- The Austin and Dallas metro areas, as well as parts of Arkansas, were hardest hit.
An ice storm struck parts of the South in late January and early February 2023, knocking down roads, damaging trees and knocking out power from Texas to Tennessee.
Its weather system was named Winter Storm Mara (MARE-uh) by The Weather Channel.
(More: How are winter storms named?)
The Mara ice broke in multiple rounds beginning on January 30 and ending at midday on February 3.
The map below shows all the sleet and freezing rain reports along the storm’s path, extending from Texas into the Mississippi and Ohio valleys and the central Appalachians during that four-day period.
Freezing rain reports (triangles) and freezing rain reports (squares) from January 30 to February 3, 2023, ice storm. Darker colored squares correspond to greater ice accumulation due to freezing rain.
(NOAA/Nuclear Nuclear Weapons)
The highest accumulations of ice occurred near the Austin metro area and west in the Texas Hill Country. About three-quarters of an inch of ice was measured at Fisher and near Llano, Texas.
A quarter to a third of an inch of ice was reported, after a round of accumulating sleet, around Fort Dallas. Worth, make the roads full of ice.
Up to a half-inch of ice in Arkansas led to downed trees and power outages, especially in the southern half of the state.
In Tennessee, a tenth to a half-inch of ice shifted on top of sleet on streets Memphis At the ice rink. Accumulations of about a tenth of an inch made roads slick and downed some trees in the area nashville Metro area.
More than 500,000 customers were without power during the storm, especially in a band stretching from central to northeastern Texas to southern Arkansas, including the Austin metro area, according to poweroutage.us.
Here are some daily highlights from Ice Storm.
Monday Jan. 30
Up to an inch of rain was reported Monday in parts of eastern Oklahoma, including Tulsa metro area, sometimes accompanied by lightning. About a half-inch of sleet was reported in Denton, Texas.
Parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex experienced a mixture of freezing rain and sleet.
Freezing rain was reported in Fayetteville and Fort Smith, Arkansas, as well as Joplin and Springfield, Missouri. Freezing and freezing rain was observed as far south as the Texas Hill Country, including metro Austin and San Antonio.
Tuesday 31 January
it was there Multiple reports of serious accidents In Austin and Dallas Ft. Metro areas due to icy conditions Tuesday. The ice also closed and caused portions of Interstate 40 to close Falling electricity poles In eastern Arkansas.
The lightning was accompanied by moderate to severe bursts of sleet in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Wednesday 1 February
More freezing rain hit the Austin metro area, and sleet and sleet returned to Dallas-Ft. Worth the metro area, where The roads were really icy From the previous rounds of the storm.
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An icy crosswalk lined with trees covered in ice from a few days of sleet and rain, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
