Many North Texans are waking up to a bit of rain on Wednesday morning.

Light rain is expected to stick around through noon with temperatures in the 70s.

There will hopefully be some breaks in the clouds later on as the rain shuts down.

Northeast winds will keep our temperatures low throughout the day.

Our high is expected to be in the low 80s at DFW Airport. That’s 10 degrees cooler than usual for this time of year.

North Texas Live Radar 

7-Day Forecast

At least some sun will return on Thursday as humid air heats back near 90 degrees.

There is enough moisture in the air to have an isolated shower.

We will be back in the 90s on Friday before we see a weak cold front in the afternoon to evening hours.

This weekend should be beautiful.

Humidity should be low and temperatures should be in the upper 80s.

Things look like they should stay dry for a while!

Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores held his first weekly press conference of the regular season on Tuesday. As usual, he emphasized the challenge the team is facing on Sunday — he had praise for Brian Daboll, Daniel Jones, and the Giants’ offensive weapons — but it was what Flores said about two notable Vikings players that stood out the most.

J.J. McCarthy isn’t playing on Sunday, but the Vikings still have a first-round pick set to make his highly-anticipated NFL debut. Dallas Turner, the 21-year-old pass rusher out of Alabama, is going to have a role against the Giants, even if he’s listed as the fourth outside linebacker on Minnesota’s unofficial depth chart.

“We’ve got a role envisioned for Dallas,” Flores said. “I’m not gonna give you (the details) right now, but I think we’ll see that play out in-game. That changes. If he’s got the hot hand, we leave him in.”

Veterans Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel are the starters at OLB, and they’ll both play quite a bit. But Pat Jones II and Turner will mix in as well, and as Flores said, the rotation is malleable based on how players are performing. On obvious passing downs, you could see three or even all four of those players on the field together.

Flores and the Vikings have been very impressed by what they’ve seen from Turner since they picked him 17th overall in April. He had a strong training camp and showed off his tools on just a few reps in the preseason opener against the Raiders.

“Very athletic, very smart, tough — nothing but positives, quite honestly,” Flores said. “I think one of the good things for him is he’s in a room with guys like Greenard, guys like Ginkel, and he’s like a sponge with that group as far as extracting information and finding ways for him to apply some of those things with his skill set. Excited to see him play on Sunday.”

Back in the spring, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell talked about wanting to reduce Harrison Smith’s workload a bit this year. Smith, 35, played over 1,100 snaps last season as a true every-down player. He’s averaged over 1,000 snaps over the last six regular seasons.

In theory, the Vikings have the depth to give their longest-tenured player some plays off here and there in 2024. Theo Jackson, their No. 4 safety, is very capable of stepping in alongside Camryn Bynum and Josh Metellus if needed. The Vikings also have four experienced cornerbacks — Stephon Gilmore, Byron Murphy Jr., Shaq Griffin, and Fabian Moreau — who they can use.

In reality, Smith is a hard guy to take off the field, Flores has learned.

“If he’s standing by me, I don’t really feel good about that,” a smiling Flores said. “Maybe that’s the play where he goes in there and makes the game-changing play. So it’s hard to get him out. There’s a plan to maybe get him out of there, a series or two, but that same plan was in last year and I kinda overruled all of that. Put it on me.”

Smith will once again be a central part of the Vikings’ defense in his 13th — and perhaps final — season with the franchise. His 34 career interceptions are two behind former teammate Patrick Peterson for the most among active players, and three behind Joey Browner for fourth in Vikings history.

NORTH TEXAS — Her local Dallas story made national headlines. Now, the 18-year-old North Richland Hills sex trafficking survivor is ready to discuss every terrifying detail.

“It’s my first birthday home since, like, two years…,” said smiling Natalee Cramer.

She is speaking out for the first time ever, explaining what happened to her in April 2022.

At just 15 years old, she disappeared from a Dallas Mavericks game at the American Airlines Center. She was found 10 days later with traffickers in Oklahoma.

“I can change people’s perspective and make them feel like they have a voice,” Cramer said.

Once afraid and too weak to tell her story, Cramer now wants her voice heard.

“I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid. There’s nothing to be afraid of. And it’s so strong, feels so strong saying that,” Cramer said. “I feel so strong saying that. I never would have thought it a year ago. I would have never been here. I would have never thought I could do it. I’m so proud of myself.”

On April 8, 2022, the Mavericks played the Trailblazers at American Airlines Center.

Cramer and her dad sat in section 221 until the then 15-year-old left to go to the bathroom and never returned.

For the next 10 days, her story made headlines all over the country. AAC cameras captured the only clues. She was last seen with two men on surveillance video at the arena.

“I was planning on going to the game but then got anxious… I needed something,” said Cramer.

Cramer says she was struggling with anxiety and addiction to vaping and marijuana.

“So, I just went and I found a male. I was like, ‘Hey, do you smoke?’ And he was like, ‘yeah.’ He asked me who I was with. And I was like, ‘I was with my dad. I don’t know where he’s at, but we can just chill.’”

Cramer says the encounter took a turn in the parking garage.

“I thought he was the only one… and he wasn’t. They had a bag of weed and rolling papers,” said Cramer. “Pretty much once they kind of showed me, I was just shoved in, not thrown in. But I didn’t I didn’t have a choice.”

Cramer says it didn’t take long to know she was in danger. She said she “…wasn’t sober enough to do anything about it. I didn’t know.”

She said the details of that night and the next 10 days are slowly coming back to her. They are very difficult to hear.

Cramer said she was raped three times in the AAC parking garage and then she was driven somewhere else.

“I would say … 20 to 25 minutes away from the American Airlines Center … and they continued to have me smoke marijuana and they raped me again,” said Cramer. “And when I knew I was getting sex trafficked was when the guy, he had a gray hoodie on… I remember he asked me, he said, ‘Can you go take a shower and then put these clothes on so we can go down to the street?’ … I didn’t think of selling my body. None of that.”

Cramer’s parents, desperate for answers, hired a private investigator who, within 24 hours, made a terrifying find. He discovered adult ads online for their daughter. She was being sold in Oklahoma. 

Cramer said she does not remember being driven to Oklahoma, but she remembers being there.

When asked why she didn’t find a phone to call for help, she said that part of the story is hard to understand.

“…that’s something that a lot of people will probably be very questionable about,” Cramer said. “There were times that there was a phone, and I could call … I didn’t, it didn’t run through my mind. I was, I was running. I was running for drugs. I was running for all these other reasons.”

Cramer says her family was not number one at that time.

“I was self-sabotaging,” said Cramer. “I was putting myself in positions that I shouldn’t have, but… I just didn’t call. I don’t know why I didn’t call.”

The private investigator alerted Oklahoma City police about the adult ads for Cramer. Ten days after Cramer disappeared from the AAC, an Oklahoma officer found Cramer wandering outside a complex where one of her traffickers would later be arrested.

“I was tired. I didn’t know. I didn’t know what to do,” Cramer said. “I was messed up to the point where I would see things that weren’t there … and so, I was just walking at those apartments, just like praying. I was just like, ‘God, please have someone, something, whether it’s a cop, an ambulance, something, a random person on the side of the road.’ I was like, ‘God, I can’t do this … please.’ And, ‘Somebody, please, please save me.’ And not five minutes [later], a cop pulled up next to me and he goes, ‘Are you Natalee Cramer?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I am.’”

Cramer became very emotional, saying her prayers were answered.

“He felt it. God told him, ‘That’s her. Go get her.’ Like, God was there. He was there.”

It’s been two and half years since that night at the AAC, Cramer attributes her escape and recovery to faith, family, therapy, and Gunnar. Gunnar is her dog, who came along not long after she came home and began therapy.

“When I got Gunnar, I was in a manic … every morning he forced me to get out, I had to take him out. I had to feed him,” said Cramer. “He brought that motivation back … he’s a dog. He doesn’t know, but he saved my life completely.”

Cramer said she is lucky to be alive.

“I knew I was going to die. I knew,” said Cramer. “It’s scary to think that it happens every day. But I hope what people take from this is that it’s real. It’s real and it’s hard. And you may not think it will happen to you until it does.”

She has a message for other victims and survivors.

“Don’t give up on yourself. Even if this happens to you, don’t give up on yourself. It will get better. It’s not something to be ashamed of anything. You just have to embrace it and realize it’s not your fault. It’s not!”

Cramer is still recovering, but she’s ready to help others who may be in the same situation she once was.

“I’m not giving up,” said Cramer. “I am going I’m going to continue to speak about it even if that means telling my story 100 times over and over and over and over. It’s not just my story being told. It’s other people’s who aren’t able to tell their story.”

Cramer says she is a 9.5 on a scale of one to 10. She is working on her GED and wants to start veterinarian school She says she’ll be a “10” when that happens.

Cramer and her family started a non-profit foundation. Aisling for Life helps raise support and resources for sexual assault and sex trafficking victims. The Irish word “Aisling” means “dream.”

While several people were convicted in Oklahoma in connection to Cramer’s case, Dallas investigators made an arrest but later dropped the charges against the suspect.