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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy "The ice and snow melting off of the Cowboys Stadium roof has caused several sliding snow falls onto the plazas," the Dallas Morning News quoted NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy as saying. "All stadium entrances have been closed except for the truck tunnel, which is away from the building by a very safe distance," he added. Emergency crews had not factored in ice as a Super Bowl problem since the stadium had never had snow, fire department spokesman Lt. Pedro Arevalo told the Dallas Morning News. "That's one thing we didn’t take into consideration," he said. Earlier Friday, many Dallas roads were closed due to snow and ice. An area that usually sees highs in the 50s has had subfreezing temperatures since Tuesday morning. And while warmer temperatures are on the way, snow and ice will still be on the ground Sunday. Dallas was feeling the chill Friday with the mercury resting at about 20, forcing organizers of at least one celebrity-filled Super Bowl event to move their Saturday celebrations inside. A winter storm warning was in effect Friday for Arlington, the Dallas suburb where the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers will play in Cowboys Stadium. Forecasters expect a mostly sunny Sunday with highs in the 40s, but just in case the retractable roof of $1.3 billion stadium will be closed. Houston saw icy roads that led to some 200 crashes by midmorning, including one death on Interstate 10, NBC affiliate KPRC-TV reported. Several freeways were closed down due to the ice, and could stay closed until Saturday. Hundreds of flights were canceled just as tens of thousands of Super Bowl fans were trying to fly in for Sunday's game. In Dallas, Love Field, home to Southwest Airlines, was closed for the entire morning Friday, and more than 600 flights, half of them inbound, were canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. American Airlines, the dominant carrier at Dallas-Fort Worth, said it was giving priority to flights from Chicago, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee. Sammy Sandu, a 32-year-old property developer from Kelowna, B.C., and his father made it to Dallas Thursday before the latest snowfall, but other members of their party weren't so lucky. Sandu's brother was still hoping to get in from Miami, while his friend essentially abandoned travel plans after an American Airlines flight from Vancouver was canceled. Sandu had hoped to visit the JFK assassination site and attend several parties — he said his brother spent $1,500 on party tickets —but that all those plans were on hold. "It looks like, 'Oh, no, I'm back in Canada,'" Sandu said. "It's just pouring down snow. Are we still at home, or have we left? We didn't drink that much last night, did we?" Houston's airport saw nearly 900 flights canceled by midmorning. In Houston, KPRC meteorologist Anthony Yanez warned the ice would be around for most of the day — and Saturday morning. "The ice that's there now really is not going to move, it's not going to melt away, until a little after the lunchtime hour," he said. "And it's not going to melt away completely because temperatures in the afternoon won't climb enough." "By 9 p.m., we're going to head back below freezing again," he added. "Tomorrow morning we'll see that ice again." Most schools in the Houston and Dallas areas were closed Friday. The same was true in Brownsville, Corpus Christi and Austin, where even the 51,000-strong University of Texas shut down. Â
Don't look for the Super Bowl Committee to be courting Dallas again anytime soon as the host of its premier event.
First it was an ice storm with bone chilling temperatures that kept the ice on the roads and buildings for four days; then this morning Dallas awakened to five inches of snow that reached up to nine inches before it finally quit about 3:00 p.m. today.
Then, as if that were not enough, seven men were injured, one critically, today when snow and ice broke loose and slid off the dome of Cowboy Stadium. Â The men were trying to clear snow and ice when the accident occurred.
Story: Frigid U.S., warm Arctic — what gives?
PhotoBlog: Snow in Texas — an excuse to stay up late
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A flurry or two, is ok, but in that quantity - awful.
