text: A storm system that many schoolchildren hoped would leave a 2- to 3-inch mantle of white across the Dallas area — with widespread school cancellations — mostly fizzled Wednesday when the storm took a jog to the south and temperatures stayed stubbornly above freezing.
  But North Texas will continue dealing with wintry precipitation until at least Saturday, with back-to-back-to-back weather systems over the next three days, forecasters say.
  “We could have a little dusting of snow [Thursday], and maybe another little bit of light snow or flurries on Friday,” said Eric Martello, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth. “There could be some very light accumulations, up to half an inch, and then a transition into a wintry mix with a chance of sleet on Saturday.”
  Remeisha Shade, a meteorologist at KXAS-TV (NBC5), said Thursday’s front brings a 20 percent chance of flurries, which should move off by the afternoon, with another system bringing a 30 percent chance of snow Friday and Friday night.
  “But that doesn’t look like 2, 3, 4 inches,” she said, “just a dusting.”
  Early risers could find fog Thursday morning, and with temperatures below freezing, that could leave a glaze of ice on bridges and overpasses, the National Weather Service said in its forecast discussion.
  The cold front will push through the area around daybreak, with strong north winds dispersing the fog and air dry enough to pull the moisture from any accrued ice.
  Wednesday was supposed to be the snow day, with forecasters talking about 2 to 4 inches in some places before lowering expectations to an inch or 2. In most of the Dallas area, even that was too much.
  “The storm track affected everything,” Martello said. “It slowed down, deepened, and went south of here — to Hamilton, Corsicana and north of Athens. Actually, all it takes is a little shift in these systems.”
  So while much of Dallas, Collin and Denton counties received a thin coat of snow, places like Blooming Grove, in Navarro County, got 3.5 inches.
  And the region remains in a wet pattern with below-normal temperatures into next week.
  “We’re expecting a high around 39 degrees [on Thursday], with wind out of the north at 10 to 20 miles per hour, with wind chills in the 20s,” Shade said. “Friday will be even colder, with a high of around 36.
  “By Sunday, we should be back in the 50s, but our average high right now is 63, so it will still be below average.”
  Lows in the 20s
  Temperatures will fall to the middle 20s Thursday night and early Friday, and to the upper 20s on Friday night and Saturday morning, Shade said.
  The National Weather Service expects temperatures to remain below freezing through much of the day Saturday, especially in the northern counties, which could result in freezing drizzle.
  “We might still have a little snow early Saturday,” Shade said, but that should change over to scattered showers by Saturday afternoon as temperatures rise a bit.
  “We’ll be in a wet pattern Saturday afternoon through Wednesday, with low to moderate rain chances. But with temperatures warming, there’s no chance of winter conditions.”
  School bus flips
  Wednesday morning’s transition from rain to sleet to snow did slow rush hour traffic, with standing water the biggest hazard.
  A school bus from Mansfield ISD flipped on its side on an icy road in Grand Prairie. Two employees and a 6-year-old girl were taken to the hospital as a precaution. All were wearing safety belts, with the girl in a five-point harness, police spokesman Lyle Gensler said.
  “If they weren’t wearing seat belts,” he said, “the outcome of this accident could have been much worse.”