This ice/snowstorm could impact as many as 100 million residents. Even in Dallas, right now, at 6:30am, it is 22°F (-5.5°C) and sleet and snow are falling. Temperatures will fall to as low as 9°F (-12.5°C) here and below 0°F (-17.8°C) in the Texas Panhandle.

Story here.

For those of you in the Pacific Time Zone, the rest of us will wish we were as well!

Dave, those numbers are rare in most of Australia. It has just passed 11:30pm here, and it is still over 33C (92F) after a top of 44C (111F). Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter.

Apparently Sydney had its highest ever daily use of electricity today, and there were quite a few small fires.

Just to demonstrate the power of Mother Nature, Cairns, a medium-sized city in northern Queensland has had many residents evacuated as it prepares for Cyclone Yasi.

Temperatures below 20°F (-6.5°C) are rare here in Dallas as well, but it does happen on occasion. Last year, we fell to 13°F (-10.5°C) for the first time since 1995. The air temperature has fallen below zero a total of three times since records started back in 1885!

Dave, we'll happily give you 10-15C at present. Still stinking hot here in Sydney. 31C at midnight in town which is on the water and usually cooler than out here in the burbs. God bless William Carrier and his air conditioners!:)

At least a jump of 10°C would put me above freezing. It's down to 21°F (-6°C) and going to fall to about 15°F (-9.4°C) by 6pm...or below. I'm walking like a penguin so I don't slip! *waddle waddle*

Currently, where I live in Colorado, we are -10°F with a wind chill of -29°F.

Schools are closed. People are moving slowly and carefully.

About every school system here in Dallas is closed as well. Some of them at 4:30am were saying "open at 10am" but have changed to "closed" now.

Update: not only are most of the schools closed, but the main airport (DFW International) is as well. Love Field is still open, but people need to call ahead to see if their flight is cleared for takeoff.

Story here.

Up here in New York we received an inch of snow overnight and it has turned into sleet/ice/rain for the morning commute.

We have had snow on the ground for the last month and a half, which hasn't happened since I can remember. Sure, we get some big storms but at some point the snow melts entirely before the new batch falls. Our yard is about 2 - 3 foot deep in fallen and shoveled snow. We shattered the January record for the area in terms of snowfall and are more then 2/3 the way to breaking the record for the entire winter and it's barely a month in.

I saw how it was falling in Dallas this morning as I was watching the Mike & Mike show on ESPN, that was some heavy snow coming down.

Most years there can be one or no cancellations of public city schools, this year at least 2 days have been cancelled, more days for some private schools.

The worry now is with the ice and power outages to start increasing as the heavier ice causes downed trees and power lines.

It was heavy sleet at times with thunder around 5am (I woke at 4:30am today due to the weather). It wasn't much better on the way to work.

We are preparing for the worst up here. 20-30 cm (8-11 in) of fun fluffy stuff is expected up here beginning tonight. Add the 5 cm already on the ground and tomorrow's commute (Toronto's is the second busiest in North America) is going to be fun.

Today's a calm day. It is -11 (12 F) and we have this "Winter Storm Watch" which has been on for a couple of days. Tomorrow is the already-designated "snow day" for the high-schoolers writing their exams.

The ice must not have passports because the weathermen up here are saying no ice, but Detroit's people are saying lots of ice.

Forget the groundhog seeing his shadow, it's going to be hard just finding the groundhog.

Yikes. I called my friend this morning and he was busily trying to get into his truck using a blow torch??! I haven't ventured out (and intend to keep it that way, passionately) but it seems that snow or bitter cold temperatures isn't a problem in NE Ohio as much as is the rather daunting depths of ice everywhere. Power lines are down all over the place, I'm hearing --- except in my neighborhood, so far. "Round 2" of this crazy mess is on its way, it is reported. That'll probably bring the snow with it, around here?

I can only imagine the chaos in place in the southern parts of the US that are not accustomed to this sort of thing. I lived in North Carolina for a few years and still recall the panic that spread when snow (etc.) was even rumored. An actual flurry set the whole place into a tailspin. I shudder imagining the paralysis of the towns down there given this 'lovely' cold snap ...

NE Ohio, does that mean you get that lovely sort of winter weather called "Lake Effect"? That kind that only someone who has lived near a large enough lake could truly understand?

Ignorance here but you folk in places like Texas which I tend to think of as being warm, do you have central heat in in your homes as well as air conditioning for the heat?

Sue, most of us do have heaters as well as air conditioners. You're right about it normally being warm; it was 75°F (24°C) on Friday and Saturday, however, the Texas Panhandle (Amarillo/Lubbock/Dalhart) does get rather cold in the wintertime (it's all of 7°F (-14°C) in Amarillo right now).

Oklahoma City (about 3 hours north of Dallas - although not in these conditions!) has been under a blizzard warning a lot of the day and I'm sure there are places even that far south under wind chill warnings (as is the Texas Panhandle). I'm currently under a wind chill advisory, and the forecasted wind chill is as low as -11°F (-24°C) here in the immediate Dallas area (something we Texans are not accustomed to). Places about an hour northwest of me are supposed to fall to about 4°F (my forecast low is 9°F).

I got home to a sheet of ice on most of the ground, but some snow mixed in so that it wasn't extra slippery, just a pain to scrape up, no shovel required other then to lift the broken off chunks of ice out of the way.

Places are starting to "dry" out...but it's still pretty slippery around here. I closed my office at 4pm instead of 6pm today, and if it stays as cold and the roads are still icy, we may do it again tomorrow...?

Many restaurants and school buses have already cancelled or closed tomorrow and we've had no snow yet.

We'll see in the morning. The storm rolls in around midnight.

We had both airports shut down for awhile today, and a lot of schools are closed for the second straight day. If the ice on the roadways doesn't subside, we may see three days straight where schools are closed.

We are bracing for the coldest weather in about 15 years, and are under a hard freeze warning!

Even San Antonio (which is about 4 to 4 1/2 hours south of me) is below freezing, and Houston may see snow on Friday! Both cities are also under hard freeze warnings.

This arctic grip is even slated to go as far south as Brownsville (you can't get much further south and still be in the USA!)...where their forecast for Thursday is ice and highs only around 35°F.

Wow. I can't imagine snow at all let alone that much. If we in Aus send you some heat, can you send us some cold? We are boiling over here. The temps are not so bad but the humidity in Perth over the last week or so has been so draining. It's like living in the tropics, only worse because it's hotter. *yuck*

It's been in the 40c s for the last two weeks here, topping out at 48.1 last Tuesday.
February is usually the hotter month so something to look forward to there.
Cyclone Yasi about to hit Queensland (just what they need) is huge, we usually get our weather from summer weather to the west so be interesting to see how this affects central Australia.
I guess it's all the La Nina El Nino swap? or maybe global warming eh Sat?

Cyclone Yasi has escalated to Category 5, and is expected to hit North Queensland at about midnight local time.
The government has issued the direst of warnings, mass evacuations have taken place and all emergency services are on standby.
Meanwhile the rest of the country holds its breath.

It's awful waiting to hear news about Yasi isn't it? I think the whole nation is on tenterhooks about this one. Let's hope everyone is safe and well despite whatever damage will be done..

It's a sheet of ice outside this morning, all the bare trees are coated in ice as if preserved, that part actually looks rather interesting. In NY we are just tired of waking up to at first 1 foot or so of snow from overnight and now the whole area a sheet of ice.

We would gladly trade places with the folks getting tropical weather at least for a week.


Did North Queensland, where the cyclone is heading, have a lot of people escaping the floods head to the area?

I hope the effects of Yasi are less then expected and it leaves the coast alone.

Yasi is supposed to be TEN times more powerful than Cyclone Tracy. Tracy blew Darwin, capital of Northern Territory, off the map on Christmas day, 1974.

Queensland is a huge state- from the flooded areas in the south to Cairns in the north is about 1700 kms (a bit over 1000 miles).

I hope Yasi does not live up to predictions, but I fear that she will. 300 kph winds, and a tide of over 7 metres is very scary. I know a couple of people up near there- I hope they will be OK!

18" and more to come. The drift at my front door is chest high. I might have a cat under that porch.