About 100,000 people lose power in the relentless cold as snow, ice and sleet swept the South and Midwest

More than 100 million people in 25 states stretching from the Mexican to the Canadian border were warned of winter weather Thursday, DailyExpertNews meteorologist Monica Garrett said.

By 7 a.m. ET, about 100,000 people had lost power, according to Poweroutage.us.

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport will be closed Thursday morning due to ice and snow, the Federal Aviation Authority said. Ice cold rain has been falling at the airport since this morning. The FAA said the airport is expected to reopen at 11 a.m. CST.

More than 8 inches of snow has already fallen in the Colorado Springs area, the weather service said. Parts of Illinois and Indiana are buried under a foot of snow.

In Texas, the storm will test the state’s electrical grid, which suffered catastrophic outages last February. The state said 246 people died — most of them from hypothermia — after a snow and ice storm left thousands of Texans without power for weeks.

Leaders of the state’s electrical grid — Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT — said on Wednesday they believe they are prepared to handle the high demands during the storm, but also warned there could be local outages due to ice. on wires or fallen tree limbs.

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Early Thursday morning, more than 48,000 homes and businesses in Texas were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us. More than 16,000 outages were reported in Oklahoma and nearly 12,000 in Arkansas.

What ‘multiple rounds of winter weather’ will look like

As the storm system pushes further east, forecasters say it will present a frigid mix of hazards.

“The system will be extended with several rounds of winter weather through Friday for parts of the central US, before shifting to the northeast,” the weather service said Wednesday.

DailyExpertNews meteorologists Robert Shackelford and Mike Saenz said these cities are under attack:

When and how the winter storm will hit major US cities?

Texas: Dallas could end up with half an inch of ice, but icy rain, sleet and snow were expected to reach their peak Thursday morning. The Dallas Independent School District will be closed Thursday and Friday, officials said. Austin could get a quarter inch and a half inch of sleet, with the worst peak by Thursday afternoon.
St. Louis: The city could get another 5 to 8 inches of snow on Thursday after already getting about 4 inches in isolated areas. The peak conditions will last until 11 a.m. Thursday.
Memphis, Tennessee: Another quarter inch to half inch of ice is expected Thursday, when conditions are now expected to peak until 1 p.m. About a tenth of an inch of ice has already been reported.
Louisville, Kentucky: Up to half an inch of ice is expected to form. In addition, about 1 inch of sleet and snow – each – is expected to fall. Peak times for a mixture of icy rain, snow, and sleet are from 7 a.m. Thursday to 1 a.m. Friday.
Little Rock, Arkansas: The city can get up to half an inch of ice, in addition to an inch of snow and sleet. Peak hours are expected between now and 11 a.m.
Oklahoma City: The city just set a new record for snowfall on Feb. 2 — 3 inches on Wednesday — and could get another 4 inches of snow before the storm is over. Ice accumulation can reach an inch.
Chicago: The Windy City could see up to 10 inches of extra snow piled on top of the nearly 9 inches that had already fallen.
Indiana: After being ravaged by more than 11 inches of snow, South Bend could see another 2 to 6 inches — and peak conditions will last until 6 p.m. Thursday. Indianapolis has already gotten 4 inches of snow and could get another 3 inches.
Buffalo, New York: The area could be covered in 7 to 13 inches of snowfall, expected to peak Thursday afternoon through evening.

Traveling is already miserable

Chicago has been ravaged by snow and is expected to get more on Thursday.

Dangerous travel conditions have led to accidents and road closures. In Illinois, officials closed sections of several highways after numerous wrecks.

What should you pack in your car to stay safe during severe winter weather?

“The combination of the amounts of snow, high winds and frigid temperatures makes travel nearly impossible in some parts of the state, with several highways closed by vehicle accidents and semi-trucks with a knife,” said Kevin Sur, spokesperson for the Illinois Emergency Manage Agency.

In Springfield, a train crashed into a car that got stuck on the track because of the snow on Wednesday night. The driver – the only person in the car – was able to get out in time, Springfield police said. No injuries were reported.

Amtrak canceled multiple train routes to and from Chicago on Thursday, including the Cardinal Train 51 to New York. The route between St. Louis and Kansas City has also been canceled, Amtrak said.

The massive storm also snapped air traffic on Thursday, which is expected to be one of the 10 worst days for air travel of the past year.

Correction: An earlier version of this story exaggerated the new February 2 snowfall record for Oklahoma City. The new record is 3 inches.

Judson Jones, Paul P. Murphy, Joe Sutton, Amanda Musa, Jenn Selva, Pete Muntean, Greg Wallace, Rosa Flores and Michelle Watson of DailyExpertNews contributed to this report.