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The week's second snowstorm could cover the region with twice as much snow as Tuesday's snowfall.
The National Weather Service predicted four to six inches of snow would fall north of Dallas before midnight Thursday, causing hazardous road conditions, wrecks and city, school and county department closures all afternoon.
In fact, the Melissa ISD decided to open school two hours late on Friday.
Greg Patrick, a meteorologist with the NWS office in Fort Worth, said such heavy snow accumulation for the area is very unusual.
"It's really something," Patrick said. "It's kind of gotten into an active pattern where we've had some strong weather systems that typically move north of Oklahoma and have been moving from January and February moving across Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. Then this past week, this will be the second major storm system that's moved across North Texas."
Patrick said a collection of colder air created the heavy snowfall.
"It basically has to do with where the cold air sets up, where the cold air and warm, moist air sets up," Patrick said. "It's in a funnel zone, so with the storm track farther south, the colder air is farther south and the colder air is where we get a lot of snow today and tonight and later in the week."
The precipitation tapered off at about 6 p.m. Thursday, but the possibilities of overnight flurries remained, the NWS said.
The snowfall is heavier than average for the month of March, but isn't enough to break the previous snowfall record for Collin County. According to NWS archives, eight to 12 inches of snow fell on McKinney on Jan. 15 and 16, 1964, as part of a line of storms that stretched all the way to Hamilton and Granbury.
The snow started in light bursts Thursday morning and built up into a heavy snowfall around Thursday afternoon. The weather prompted a number of city and county agencies to close early so non-emergency personnel could drive home before road conditions became extremely hazardous, city and county officials confirmed.
U.S. 75 in both directions turned into parking lots by the time the heavy snowfall fell around 2:45 p.m.
The McKinney ISD canceled all extracurricular and athletic activities Thursday and allowed parents to pick up their children early to avoid late afternoon traffic problems. The Celina ISD closed schools at 2:15 p.m. The McKinney Chamber of Commerce postponed indefinitely a reception for new City Manager Frank Ragan planned for Thursday night.
The snow also caused more than a few minor traffic problems and only one major accident on FM 1827, north of U.S. 380 as of Thursday night. Collin County Fire Marshal Steve Deffibaugh said a car skidded off the icy rural road and flipped over off of the roadway.
Paramedics transported the driver of the vehicle to Medical Center of McKinney. Deffibaugh also said McKinney police officials closed the roadway to general traffic.
McKinney Police Capt. Randy Roland said several minor accidents have been reported all over the city during the snowfall.
"Basically it's the bulk of what we're doing right now," Roland said. "There are lots of slick spots and we're helping cars get out of the ditch."
Hal Cranor, McKinney's public works director, said crews switched to 12-hour shifts to monitor bridges and roadways with sand trucks.
Roland said drivers should avoid driving on the roads, but if they have to, they should drive very slowly. He also said drivers should choose routes with the fewest number of bridges since they are more vulnerable to ice accumulation.
"The roads are icing up," Deffibaugh said. "The main problem right now is people driving too fast and not using common sense when they are driving in hazardous weather conditions."
Contact Danny Gallagher at dgallagher@acnpapers.com. To post comments online, access this story on the web at www.scntx.com.
