For second time in less than a week, Houston braced itself for a winter storm from hell. But with schools closed and city services suspended Tuesday, area officials found themselves scaling back the weather hysteria by downgrading the "winter warning" to a wimpy "winter advisory."

Even though the Bayou City dodged the supposed arctic Armageddon with warmer-than-expected temperatures, meteorologist Dan Reilly with the National Weather Service office in League City still warns of "possible" icy roadways until 4 p.m., especially on bridges and overpasses along and south of I-10.

Patches of sleet and snow are possible throughout the region as air continues to cool below freezing in the afternoon. At most, the Houston area will see 0.1 inch of accumulation.

"The jet stream is very wavy this year, which happens from time to time," Reilly tells CultureMap. "The jet stream normally locks all this arctic air near the poles, but right now it's dipping as far down as the Gulf Coast." Precipitation forms as the dry northern air collides with moisture flowing off the Gulf.

Wavy patterns like this are unpredictable, he says, adding that temperatures often can swing from the twenties to the seventies in a matter or days. (Friday's high is expected to be 74 degrees, by the way.)

The arctic blast — dubbed Winter Storm Leon by the Weather Channel — heads out of town on Wednesday, leaving Houstonians with slightly warmer afternoon temperatures. And nothing close to a crisis.