Snow flurries sweep through Georgetown

Inside an unidentified store in Kingsland, 2-1-11 (Courtesy: Tom Suarez)

Central Texas dealt with heavy winds

Updated: Tuesday, 01 Feb 2011, 3:29 PM CST
Published : Tuesday, 01 Feb 2011, 8:28 AM CST

AUSTIN (KXAN) - By 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, snow flurries had hit Georgetown, and businesses and homes all around Central Texas were busy trying to clean up the mess that the high winds overnight had caused.

Snow dusted Leander just before noon, making its way east after light snow flurries hit some far northwest parts of Central Texas -- even just for a fleeting moment.

Marble Falls also saw light snow flurries around noon.

The National Weather Service reported a wind gust of 50 mph in Fredericksburg and 70 mph in Pflugerville. By 10 a.m., people were beginning to see colder-than-expected temperatures in Pflugerville; one viewer saw the rain beginning to freeze on surfaces and saw the water in a dog dish partially frozen.

Check out a map of the wind chill temperatures in the area. It updates hourly.

In Tow, Texas, Claire Fritz -- who lives near the San Saba, Burnet, Llano county lines -- was seeing light snow falling at 10:36 a.m.

After bundling up, Cary Rygaard in Watson, Texas walked out to check the water for her livestock to find the sun was out and that there was a light flurry of snowflakes blowing around. Rygaard said the temperature read 24.9 degrees, noting there was some ice on the porch in patches where she lives on U.S. Highway 183 and FM 963.

Kay Dennis Evans reported light snow flurries at 10:56 a.m. in Mason that had been going on for the last hour.

Very strong winds raced through Central Texas Tuesday morning and caused numerous power outages, downed power lines, broken tree limbs and damage to structures.

Wind gusts broke a tree limb in North Austin , which then fell onto a truck parked on the street. In Steiner Ranch in West Austin, Marco Gutierrez had his front and back fence blown out.

Burnet saw some weather damage. KXAN Austin News viewer Stephanie Idell took a photo of a tree that split in half in Burnet at 2 a.m., and an entire tree uprooted in Melissa Glaspy's yard due to the high winds.

"I live between Burnet and Llano in Buchanan Dam and there is many many trees down, one house that collapsed off of 261.....and still with no water or power!!" said Tabitha Bailey via the KXAN Austin News Facebook page.

In Llano, Matthew Denham's barn roof blew off entirely. Deborah Morris in Kingsland said her son's front porch was flipped up onto another part of his house, pulling the tranformer off the utility pole. Many of them in the area were without power at 3:19 a.m.

"Llano county, particularly Kingsland has quite a bit of damage as well...uprooted trees and lots of roofs blown off houses and businesses," said Krystal LaForce on the KXAN Austin News Facebook page.

A line of sleet rolled in between 6:45 a.m. and 7:45 a.m., hitting Interstate 35 and 51st Street. However, the rain was short-lived and is gone for now, and we are left with extremely cold temperatures for the next few days.

Sunshine is expected Tuesday, and that will help keep temperatures floating in the 30s. But by Wednesday morning, we can expect temperatures to dip into the 20 degree range and not likely to get much above freezing Wednesday.

There are even colder temperatures to the mid teens to be expected for Thursday morning. Then with a little disturbance passing through Texas, a chance for snow is possible late Thursday into early Friday.

Temperatures will begin to warm this weekend and should remain above freezing after Saturday morning. A light freeze is possible Sunday morning for some areas.

KXAN Austin News Reporter Josh Hinkle's family sent in video from Seminole, Okla., where snow is pounding the area.

On a travel note, delays and cancellations will be numerous for areas from Dallas/Fort Worth and the Northeast as heavy snow and ice become a problem.

All afternoon flights out of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to Chicago and other Midwest cities are canceled.

KXAN Austin News Reporter Jacqueline Ingles flew out of ABIA Tuesday morning to head to Chicago and captured some photos as she entered the Chicago O'Hare International Airport. Find them attached to the slideshow with this story.

Call ahead and expect cancellations, which you can also check online for up-to-the-minute cancellations. And of course, travel via roads in those areas is ill-advised.

Snow flurries sweep through Georgetown

Central Texas dealt with heavy winds

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