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Top Stories: Worst Of Winter Weather Leaving North Texas; Decline In GEDs Across The State

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The top local stories this morning from KERA News:

The National Weather Service says a winter storm system sweeping across the state will move out of North Texas this morning.

Jesse Moore, a meteorologist with the NWS in Fort Worth, said there are a few lingering snow flurries east of Interstate 35, but the skies will likely clear by early afternoon.

“Here in the immediate Dallas and Tarrant Counties, we got away pretty good with this event,” Moore said. “Of course, as you move to the south and east, things were a bit different. We did have anywhere from dusting to up to two inches of snow from Waxahachie through extreme southeastern Dallas County and eastward over from Canton to Tyler.”

Temperatures will remain below freezing throughout the day, though, with wind chill values in the single digits and teens.

There are nearly 200 school closings – most of them smaller school systems. Most major districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area will have classes today. Fort Worth schools will open two hours later than usual, while classes in Richardson are canceled today for staff development.

A winter storm warning and winter weather advisory are in effect further south – prompting school and business closures as well as canceled flights.

“The wintry precipitation will extend as far south as from Laredo over to Corpus Christi and then all points on I-10 East from San Antonio towards the Houston area,” said John Zeitler with the Austin/San Antonio office of the National Weather Service. “So anywhere in South Texas from Del Rio to San Antonio and Austin all the way to Houston and then down to Laredo and Corpus Christi, that’s sort of the main area of emphasis for this morning.”

Zeitler said the cold weather will likely stick around for another day or two. Temperatures will rise at the end of the week across the state.

Other stories the morning:

  • A report out last week found a decline in the number of Texas adults taking and passing the General Equivalency Diploma. KERA’s Stella Chavez talked with Eric Aasen about why fewer people are getting GEDs – and what’s being done to address the decline.

You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.

Former KERA staffer Stephanie Kuo is an award-winning radio journalist who worked as a reporter and administrative producer at KERA, overseeing and coordinating editorial content reports and logistics for the Texas Station Collaborative – a statewide news consortium including KERA, KUT in Austin, Houston Public Media and Texas Public Radio in San Antonio.