Snow day brings joy and merriment to North Texas

Katie Talman yelled as she threw a snowball at her son Ryan, who shielded himself with his arm.

“Ah! I got you,” she screamed.

The 2-year-old — bundled in a winter coat, boots and gloves — tromped the snowy, leafy terrain at the carousel in Frankford Park in Far North Dallas. His brother, Luke, launched a counterattack.

“Ah! You got me!” Katie yelled back as the packed puck of powdery precipitation raced towards her.

North Texas businesses and schools closed Thursday as municipalities braced for threats of 5 inches of snow, severe winter conditions and forecasts that induced déjà vu and panic over a repeat of the 2021 storm that killed nearly 250 Texans. Despite bitter weather, people across Dallas-Fort Worth ventured outside for reprieve, joy and frosty fun.

The few flakes didn’t stop kids in Fort Worth’s Fairmount neighborhood from trying to build a snowman: By about 10:30 a.m., they managed to roll a hefty base. Cousins ​​Yasury and Daniela Garcia had better luck with Plano making a burly snowman, complete with stubby stick arms, a red scarf and adorned with a gold crown. Meanwhile, in suburban Collin and Rockwall counties, young boys and girls were seen practicing their snowball pitches.

“Three, two, one, go,” Jamie and Tommy Tomlin counted down before pushing their 2-year-old son Aiden down a slope at Plano’s Liberty Park. The Tomlins used a baking sheet as a makeshift sled while family dog ​​Milo raced down the slope with Aiden.

Sledders have also shredded the dusting of snow at Flagpole Hill in Lake Highlands. Some had plastic bowls, while others used inner tubes.

“It’s refreshing and refreshing,” said Steve Break, 50, during his morning jog at White Rock Lake. “And that happens so rarely. So I wanted to catch it.”

A native of the Northeast, Break said the mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow made for the ideal race.

“We should go out and get some cold air in our lungs because our summers are so brutal,” he said. “I will enjoy this moment because it will not last long.”

Staff photographer Juan Figueroa and staff writers Matt Kyle, Sarah Bahari, Scott Bell and Kevin Lueb contributed to this report.