North Texas Road Conditions Improve as Temperatures Rise

North Texas road conditions improved tremendously Friday as temperatures finally rose above freezing with warm sunshine to melt the ice.

But some slick spots remained.

Brown Boulevard in Arlington was still closed. One driver who passed the barricade to try the road at midday found out why.  His vehicle slid down the street that had been used by neighbors for sledding the past week.

“Slick, slick, slick, super slick,” neighbor Don Flowers said.

He said nearby side streets in North Arlington were still risky. He ventured out Friday to a local grocery store to resupply his family after days of staying inside to avoid driving on the icy roads.

“It’s like these dips in the street and snow has built up in these dips so once you get into them, it's a groove you've got to get out of,” Flowers said.

On a tour of North Texas Friday morning, icy road conditions could be found everywhere after so many days of freezing weather.

There was bumpy cobblestone ice on side streets near Uptown Dallas apartment buildings.

The main lanes of major freeways in Ellis, Dallas and Tarrant counties were clear but some ramps and feeder roads were still slick.

“We are doing everything we can to clear the roads and treat the roads,” Texas Department of Transportation spokesperson Tony Hartzel said.

People out looking for gasoline found some stations empty. Fuel trucks were getting back to places that had been hard to reach or had not had power in previous days.

Arlington resident Isis Sneed said she was looking for water and found it at the Arlington store where Flowers went shopping.

“They do have some water. That water is very expensive but it's all they had left,” Sneed said.

She said her apartment had no water supply after frozen pipes ruptured and caused a lot of damage. She was lucky to find a hotel room.

Sneed said she had been driving on the slick roads all week to her job as a behavioral health professional offering virtual appointments.

She said there was plenty of demand right now from patients.

“Oh yeah, high anxiety, high depression, a lot of worries and stress,” Sneed said.

Through the day with the warmer weather, many of those slick side streets became safer, but another round of freezing temperatures was forecast Friday night.

“You have to just expect that there is still going to be some ice on the road in various locations,” Hartzel said.

It was one last chance for sledding on Brown Boulevard before the last of the ice disappeared.