Katie Talman yelped as she tossed a snowball at her son Ryan, who shielded himself with his arm.
“Ah! I got you,” she screamed.
The 2-year-old — bundled in a winter coat, boots and gloves — tromped in the snowy, leafy terrain by the merry-go-round at Frankford Park in Far North Dallas. His brother, Luke, launched a counterattack.
“Ah! You got me!” Katie shouted back, as the packed puck of powdery precipitation hurdled toward her.
North Texas businesses and schools shuttered Thursday, as municipalities braced for threats of 5 inches of snow, severe wintery conditions and forecasts that elicited déjà vu and panic over a repeat of the 2021 storm that killed nearly 250 Texans. Despite bone-chilling weather anxiety, people across Dallas-Fort Worth ventured outside for a reprieve, joy and frosty fun.
The few flakes didn’t stop kids in Fort Worth’s Fairmount neighborhood from attempting to build a snowman: By about 10:30 a.m. they managed to roll a hefty base. Cousins Yasury and Daniela Garcia had more luck in Plano crafting a stout snowman, complete with stubby stick arms, a red scarf and adorned with a gold crown. Meanwhile, in suburban Collin and Rockwall counties, young boys and girls were seen practicing their snowball pitches. Great Danes Gambit and Bleu, donning colorful doggy vests, were spotted in a Grapevine park fetching snowballs.
“Three, two, one, go,” Jamie and Tommy Tomlin counted down before pushing their 2-year-old son Aiden down a slope at Plano’s Liberty Park. The Tomlins used a baking sheet as a impromptu sled, while family dog Milo raced down the incline to alongside Aiden.
Sledders also shredded the dusting of snow at Flagpole Hill in Lake Highlands. Some had plastic saucers, while others used inner tubes. James Crewse and daughter Dylan christened her years-old sled with the first fall of snow.
The sled has “just been collecting dust, really,” Crewse said.
“This was the first semi-opportunity to use them, so we jumped on it.”
Brett Muller, 44, who took his three kids and their friend to the park, was unsatisfied with the dismal accumulation about 12:30 p.m., compared to 2021, which dumped up to 8 inches in parts of the region: “This is a little lame, I got to be honest with you,” Muller said. “This is pretty weak at the moment.”
Muller’s 12-year-old daughter Maddie still enjoyed her day off school, flying down the hill.
“It’s refreshing and invigorating,” said Steve Break, 50, during his morning jog at White Rock Lake. “And it happens so infrequently. So I wanted to capture it.”
A native of the northeast, Break said the mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow made for the ideal run.
“We should go out and get some cold air in our lungs, because our summers are so brutal,” he said. “I want to enjoy this moment because it doesn’t last long.”
Oak Cliff Bread owner Tyler Rooney said the shop off Polk Street will stay open Friday; he anticipates some regular patrons will still walk over, regardless of the conditions, for fresh, toasty bread and baked goods. The warmth of the bakery contrasts the bitter cold, Rooney said.
“What’s better than a flakey warm croissant when you’re freezing cold?”
Staff photographer Juan Figueroa and staff writers Matt Kyle, Sarah Bahari, Julia James, Scott Bell and Kevin Lueb contributed to this report.