The polar vortex sets its sights on Texas and neighboring states, with snow expected

The cold snap coincided with rare January wildfires that were tearing through the Los Angeles area on Wednesday, forcing residents to flee from burning homes through flames, ferocious winds and towering clouds of smoke.

Southern discomfort

A mix of sleet, snow and freezing rain is expected to fall on a stretch of the U.S. from New Mexico to Alabama starting Wednesday night and early Thursday, with the heaviest amounts likely in parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas, according to the National Weather Service. In the most southern locations, the snow could turn into sleet and freezing rain, which meteorologists warn could cause hazardous driving conditions.

That system is expected to push northeastward by Friday with a mix of heavy snow and freezing rain forecast from southeastern Oklahoma and northeastern Texas all the way to the Virginia and North Carolina coasts.

The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually spins around the North Pole, but it sometimes ventures south into the U.S., Europe and Asia. Some experts say such cold air outbreaks are happening more frequently, paradoxically, because of a warming world.

North Texas braces for snow

In the Dallas area, crews treated the roads ahead of the expected arrival of 2 to 4 inches (about 5 to 10 centimeters) of snow on Thursday, along with sleet and rain. Up to 5 inches is expected farther north near the Oklahoma state line, the weather service said.

Mark Reid said Wednesday that he has been very busy delivering groceries for Instacart.

"I'm going to be done probably about 5 or 6 (p.m.) today and then tomorrow I'm going to be in the house," Reid said outside of a Dallas grocery store as he loaded his fourth order of the day into his car.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that the state had deployed several emergency agencies and opened hundreds of warming centers ahead of the storm.

"The lives of our fellow Texans are by far the most important thing," he said, warning affected residents to avoid driving if possible.

Abbott also expressed confidence in the state's power grid, which failed during an unusually cold storm in 2021, leaving more than 3 million residents without power and resulting in the deaths of more than 200 people. He said that if an outage occurs this week, it's likely due to a downed power line.

"If there is a loss of power, it's not going to be because of the power grid," the governor said.

The storm could make the roads slick on Friday as 75,000 fans head to AT&T Stadium in Arlington to see Texas play Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. Arlington spokesperson Susan Shrock said crews will be ready to address any hazardous road conditions around the stadium.

"They're going to have the salt brine, they'll have sand and they'll have equipment on standby," she said.

The weather's impact on farmers and ranchers

Some parts of Kansas have received nearly an entire year's average of snow over the past few days, hitting farmers and ranchers "in ways that we haven't seen in this area for a very, very long time, potentially a lifetime," said Chip Redmond, a meteorologist at Kansas State University.

The risk is real: Calves, especially, can die when temperatures slip below zero. And so much snow in rural areas can keep farmers from reaching herds with food and water

In northern Florida, growers were most concerned about the ferns grown for floral arrangements, with Valentine's Day only a month away.

Major damage to citrus trees, which typically occurs when temperatures drop to 28 degrees (minus 2 degrees Celsius) or below for several hours, is less likely. Most of Florida's commercial citrus groves are far south enough that they haven't been affected by this week's recent cold snap.

A Boil-water order in Virginia's capital

Richmond will remain under a boil-water advisory until at least Friday as officials work to restore the city's water reservoir system, which malfunctioned after a storm this week caused a power outage, Mayor Danny Avula said.

The city of more than 200,000 residents is distributing bottled water at 11 sites, and is delivering it to older residents and others who are unable to get to those sites, officials said.

Due to the problems in Richmond, the first working day of the legislative session was postponed, as the state Capitol and General Assembly buildings remained closed on Wednesday.

Travel dangers and delays

More than 50,000 customers were without power on Wednesday in Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Virginia and West Virginia, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us.

More than 2,000 flights in the U.S. were delayed or canceled before midday on Wednesday, according to tracking platform Flight Aware. More than 5,000 flights into or out of the U.S. were delayed Tuesday.

Hundreds of car accidents were reported in Virginia, Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky earlier this week, and a state trooper was treated for injuries after his patrol car was hit.

Three people died in vehicle crashes in Virginia, according to state police. Other weather-related fatal accidents occurred Sunday near Charleston, West Virginia, and Monday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Kansas, where over a foot (30 centimeters) of snow fell in places, had two deadly weekend crashes.

And in In Birmingham, Alabama, where temperatures fell below freezing, the Jefferson County coroner's office said Wednesday that it was investigating three possible deaths from hypothermia that had occurred over the past 24 hours.