Brooks's Blog: Big state, crazy weather

From a wintry ice storm in the Dallas suburbs today forcing schools to close, to warm, flooding downpours in the Houston region, Texas is a huge state and its weather extremes are just as big. While north Texas dealt with up to 1/2" of ice accretion on trees causing limbs to fall under frigid winds (placing wind chills in the teens), its beaches to the south basked in sunshine with highs near 80°. Thankfully, our bayous in Houston stayed within their banks despite up to 3" of rain falling. Parts of the Dallas metro that escaped the wintry travel did face water rescues due to flooding. Locally in Houston, the National Weather Service has dropped all flood watches, but our evening drive in Houston will still feature pockets of heavy rain slowing things down as high water pools in some of the usual, flood-prone spots. Tomorrow will be cool with scattered rain likely for the Rodeo BBQ Cook-off but it'll be much warmer Friday as rain chances diminish. -Brooks Garner