Oklahoma city is wet and chilly. But the state in its infinite quest to waste taxpayers' money, preemptively closed most state offices. We got notified last night at 8 that we'd be closed. So I'm sitting here on my "snow day" watching it drizzle. I understand closing if there's a reason, but this is pretty stupid if you ask me.

I am in north Missouri. Nothing at all going on here yet. In fact, the sun is shining! Although everyone is panicking, like Henny Penny:

There were icicles on my patio furniture earlier. The ground was too warm, though, to freeze over. Last I looked it was 35 on the patio and the icicles had melted. I SOOO hope it is not as bad as predicted.

`It sounds like western OK is getting the worst of it so far, with multiple accidents on I-40 east of Clinton within the last hour. They do have icing on the roadways and worsening conditions, per news reports from that part of the state.

My SIL lives in the Oklahoma panhandle, and she just told me they have haze and cold. Nothing on the ground. Yet.

The NWS added 8 more counties to the Freezing Rain Advisory about a half-hour ago, so people in some counties that thought the ice would miss them now appear to have a chance of getting iced. Some of the counties added are in SE OK and some are in western North Texas. One is right next door to my county, which is getting a little bit too close, but I still don't expect any ice here. We've been sitting at 38 or 39 degrees all day, but moisture is headed towards us from Texas. We need the rain, so bring it on. (And, because we need rain, it probably won't fall.)

Everything I've watched today, from radar to some TV station "predictor" models continue to show fairly narrow bands of precipitation moving across the state, so I think it will just depend on whether those bands come over you or miss you. If they come over you and ice you, your forecast will verify and if they miss you, your forecast was a bust. I'm hoping the forecast busts big-time. This is Oklahoma, though, where the weather changes from one hour to the next, so a totally busted forecast at 3 or 6 p.m. doesn't mean you won't get ice at 3 or 6 a.m.

OSU Campus is closed.

We dont' worry much with power outages. Emergency services and even the power plant is nearby. heh heh

I feel like baking some cinnamon rolls.

Very light misty rain now is falling here at our place in southern Love County. We remain at 37 degrees, so the rain is not a problem. The rain is, however, heading north, albeit very slowly. Our Mesonet station shows 36. For the record, our forecast high was 39 and our forecast low for tonight was 37, so our forecast already is busted. Just to our west in Jefferson County (which was added to the Freezing Rain forecast, Ringling was showing 33 degrees a while ago....).

For entertainment today, I am watching the chickens and the crows. A crow lands and tries to steal a kernel of corn from the hen scratch. The rooster chases him off. Crow flies up into a tree. Rooster wanders off. Crow returns to hen scratch to nab a kernel of corn. Rooster comes running back, carrying on hysterically and flapping wings to chase off the crow. Little dogs watching from indoors bark hysterically. Chickens react to barking and start running all over the place, squawking hysterically. Chris is sure the ruckus is occurring because a predator is out there, so runs out of house with gun. Finds nothing. Comes inside. Everything quiets down. The rooster wanders off. The crow comes back to attempt to steal a kernel of corn again.....

This has gone on sporadically for hours, with the exception being that after the first time, Chris did not run out to nab the predator. When Tim comes home tonight and asks "did anything interesting happen today?", I'll just roll my eyes and answer 'no'.

At some point you'd think the crows would fly off and look for corn elsewhere, or that maybe one of them would stand up to the rooster, but the same cycle repeats over and over.

Rick Smith, NWS-Norman, says the Ice Storm Warning is going to be expanded southward to include OKC, so if you guys aren't getting ice yet, it seems like they still believe you will. I'll post the new warning when it comes out.

* Edited @ 3:10 pm to add the new Ice Storm Warning. The Ice Storm Warning issued at 3:05 pm extends the Ice Storm Warning to 10 additional counties, replacing the prior Freezing Rain Advisory. You can read the text of the warning below:

New Ice Storm Warning Issued Friday 3:05 pm

And, I think Lone Jack may not have power any more based on reports of heavy sleet coming out of his region, so I'll add this on his behalf: The KC Chiefs-Pittsburgh Steelers playoff game scheduled for early Sunday afternoon has been postponed to Sunday evening. This was done to help fans avoid the worst of the ice storm.

Crows are extremely intelligent. People studying them have to hide because the crows recognize their faces. I wouldn't be surprised if the crows found this game as amusing as you do!

That could be! I know the crows are smart. Also, very territorial. Usually they steal the whole corn I put out for the deer, and they chase away owls and other predators that dare to fly in their air space above our property. That makes it look like the crows are protecting our chickens, but I think they're really just protecting the deer corn. Now that we've gotten a half-inch of rain, the chickens have retreated into the coops and the crows have gone away, and the squirrels are raiding the chicken feeders, which means the dogs still have something to bark at. Y'all getting anything frozen yet?

We got mist.

Your rooster and crow story is so funny, Dawn.

Amy, I've also heard about the intelligence of crows. The neighbor who lives to the north of us, will shoot crows. It really upsets me. And he is not an unkind person...or a person who dislikes animals. In fact, he has a soft place in his heart for most animals--just not crows or skunks (or mean animals). When we've gone out of town on short trips, he takes care of our animals. I'm guessing the crows bully "his" doves. He throws food out everyday for the wild birds: doves, ducks, geese...

Bon, Freezing mist? That can be dangerous (cause folks don't think about it freezing on surfaces) just like freezing fog.

So far, for most of you it sounds like it hasn't been bad yet. If you can wake up tomorrow and say the same thing, then I think that will mean the ice pretty much missed you.

Hazel, Living here is a circus or a zoo every single day. It is one reason I love living way out in the country.

Most everyone out here feeds something---birds, bunnies, deer, etc. I have a friend who is a really special, kind person. She feeds a female coyote who hangs out on their land a lot. That's a bit more than I would do, but then again, that coyote doesn't bother her cat, who is an outdoor/barn cat, so encouraging it to stay around apparently doesn't cause any problems for them.

Dawn

I just wandered outside... and found the street still dry. This is at 63rd and May in OKC.

Many years back (15?) I heard this lady speak. She described having to hide in the car because the crows knew her face. I believe Caffrey is no longer at OSU, but if you google her you can find other articles. Also, crows will rub ants on themselves. It might be a way of getting rid of parasites, but it also seems to get them high. Nature isamazing.

Very thin sheet of ice under threat of thawing. Temps have risen a bit and the wind is missing.

Trees are burdened. Icicles hang from the eaves. Blades of grass glisten from dawn. Water is dripping from all. It's quiet but for the cars passing by at normal speeds. Icy, but nothing serious.

We'll see what the rest of the day reveals.

The chicken wire is coated with ice, but the gound doesn't LOOK icy. Haven't been out. Hope no one lost power.

Based on last night's temp around midnight and this morning's, plus no ice, I don't think we got below freezing. Cold and drizzly here between Seminole and Wewoka.

Bon, with just a couple of changes, your last weather report would make a lovely haiku!

Icy stuff, but ground too warm here for icy roads. Onward.

Tx Sandplum. I hadn't heard of haiku before. Very popular deal!

Yer right, Rebecca. Not cold enough.

It sounds like y'all really lucked out! Yay! Folks in western OK and in many parts of Missouri and Kansas might be wishing they had your luck.

I'm glad the worst of the storm's possible impacts failed to materialize over most of central and northeastern OK. Western and northwestern OK probably have enough trouble to make up for y'all not having much trouble, if any at all. Let's hope the number of deaths is kept to a minimum (I know one person died in a wreck on I-40 in western OK today, and even one death is too many) and that people who have lost power are not without power for too long.

Is it wishful thinking to imagine maybe this is winter's last gasp here (I know, so early, but if you're gonna dream of an early spring, dream big) and maybe now we'll just have a slow, steady warm-up until Spring arrives?

Dawn, I have feeling it's going to be a warm winter for us. I'm sure it will continue to be cold, but maybe sporadically? Yes. I can dream.

**runs and breaks out seed packets of brassicas**

I have spent this rainy icy cold day inside making soup and planning, plotting, graphing. The weather did not really get ugly until after I had taken care of my animals and the animals at house where I am sitting. I hope no one loses power and heat tonite.

Bon, I hope you're right.

Kim, Most of OK is in really great shape. Well, not NW OK. Tonight the cavalry of power company trucks are headed south to wherever they came from, headed home to their families and their regular lives since most of OK will not need them here repairing the power grid. There's so many of them that it is just unreal, and they're running down the road in a hurry to get somewhere.

I'm glad you got ahead of the ugly weather. We have a foggy mist or a misty fog right now, but tomorrow night we'll have rain and possibly thunderstorms. See there, thunderstorms. Now that's a sign of Spring. (Or of unsettled winter weather. lol.)

Dawn

Watching the news this morning and Woodward got hit pretty bad. There are over 10k customers without power and they showed trees down everywhere. They are saying out west that this is one of the worst ice storms in Oklahoma. I am thankful that OG&E was prepared though and hopefully they can get the power back on pretty quickly.

We are just N of Edmond, half way between Edmond and Guthrie and we didn't get too much. The news mentioned the metro area got at least 1/4" of ice. It's still misting this morning but the temps are supposed to get warmer which will prevent it from freezing any further. Thankfully our power lines are buried which makes the chances of power going out less likely. But, if it does, then it'll be worse because it will be a much more wide spread issue. I think we'll be fine though. I had gotten groceries Monday for my youngest daughter's birthday so we were good.

Definitely do NOT want to see any ice like we did in 2007. My parents were out of power for almost a week. Luckily they had bought a generator and my dad got it hooked up to run the fridge and heater. He had a turkey fryer that they used to cook soup on. Then in 2008 we had another ice storm in which we lost power but only for about a day. We borrowed my parent's generator since they had power and my youngest was a year so I was concerned about keeping it warm for her.

Funny thing is when the power goes out.....I actually don't mind. It makes us all put down ALL electronics and pay attention to each other more than normal. I actually love it, lol. I don't wish it upon us, but I love it.

Hoping anyone who doesn't have power is staying warm and safe.

I heard Woodward was expecting to get hit hard, and I was hoping it would miss them the way it missed so much of central OK. I hope they can recover quickly. Those poor folks at Woodward always seem to get hit too often by various things...tornadoes in Spring, wildfires in winter and summer and ice storms in winter. I hope everyone is able to stay safe and warm and that there's no weather-related fatalities in Woodward.

You know, the best possible case scenario is that as the freezing lines moves back north and the rain turns warmer, then the rain would melt the ice. So, I hope warm rain hits Woodward and other icy areas this afternoon/evening/overnight and melts off the ice accumulations.

Down here in SC OK, we are in the Storm Prediction Center's Slight risk area for severe thunderstorms tonight. I think our risk is mostly hail or high wind, but south of us in Texas, much of north central Texas has a TorCon of 3 for the evening/overnight thunderstorms and further south in Texas (for example, around the San Antonio area) there is a TorCon of 4. Maybe that's one reason we saw hordes of power company trucks racing back south last night----they might be wanting to make it back home to their cities in Texas in case the weather turns severe tonight.

We have stayed above freezing throughout this whole thing so we never had to worry about ice down here, but it did drop down to 32 degrees in Ringling, just a bit NW of Love County and it dropped down to 33 in Carter County just north of us. I think we only dropped to 34 degrees. I was surprised how low our temperatures fell because the freezing line was supposed to stay further north. Luckily, our rain fell when it was warm and didn't fall when it was even close to freezing. We're up to over an inch of rain so far for January and forecast to get 1-2" tonight. Then we warm up later in the week. Gotta love OK weather and, if you're getting weather you don't like, just wait a couple of days and it will change.

I think most of OK was extremely lucky with this storm and wish western/northwestern OK had been as lucky as the rest of us.

My son in law is with the crew or crews that staged up in Woodward, Thursday evening. Two days with little or no activity and they were about ready to release them to come back home. That kind of changed over night!

Oh wow, it sure did change! I hope they manage to stay warm and safe, Bruce.

Just when we thought we all were safe from the ice......at 12:02 pm today, NWS-Amarillo issued a Winter Storm Warning for the OK panhandle and parts of the TX panhandle through tomorrow morning. Apparently the ice storm is not finished with our region yet, after all.

Poor Texas. Severe t-storms and tornadoes possible at one end of the state this evening and ice at the other. OK is not much better off, though I feel like our severe T-storm and tornado risk is lower than theirs.

All I want is sunshine. All the rest of the winter weather is just annoying. I. Need. Sunshine. It's foggy and drizzly so sunshine is something we're not going to see here today.

It is cold and wet and icy and yukky here. My house sitting ended a day too early for me. Got home and can't get water heater lit and it's been pouring or sleeting so I gave up. Time to stay in and eat more soup

Kim, I hope you are dry, and warm. Hopefully your water heater will co-operate soon.

Kim, Oh no. I hope you can get that water heater to cooperate. It is pouring rain here, and with a frighteningly large amount of lightning and thunder. Still, we're better off than the DFW metro area which has a Tornado Watch as far north as Dallas through midnight and has had Tornado Warnings down around Hillsboro, Lake Whitney and now in Johnson County. If we're lucky, all we'll get here is rain. Hail is a possibility, and all I can say about that is that I'd rather the garden get hailed on in January than in June.

LoneJack, I hope that wherever you are, you and yours are safe and warm and you can either watch or listen to the Steelers-Chiefs game. Our Cowboys lost on a field goal as time expired, so now I will have to listen to Tim rant and rave his way through this game, willing his Steelers on to victory. If y'all beat the Steelers and he has to watch both his teams get knocked out of the playoffs on the same night, I'm not sure if he'll sleep at all tonight. I'd say it is just football, but that would get me in so much trouble!

I hope this rain is washing away Woodward's massive covering of ice.

Dawn

Tahlequah escaped ice completely. We've just had rain and clouds. We won't complain!

We got some lite ice, thank heavens. I was worried sick, don't do ice storms well. Now we are getting the rain we need. After the rain moves out I will be ready for sunshine. So far four days of cold drizzly precip.is about enough.

I agree. Sunshine for all!!!

I hope we get that sunshine. This liquid sunshine we've had all weekend long is getting old fast.

DH says he emptied 2" from the rain gauge this morning. We are getting good rain tonight. The mesonet and TIA do not show that much. At this point I'm glad we're getting rain. Wish my weather station was set up. Poor DH has just had too much to do.

We pretty much dodged the bullet on the ice in the KC area. We got a light glazing early Saturday morning and then about 1/8" early Sunday morning before it warmed up enough to keep it liquid after about 10:00 am. No power outages in my area but I think some areas 50 miles to the south got hit pretty hard and lost power. It rained hard last night...thank goodness the temps stayed in the mid 30s or it would have been real bad.

This storm really had the forecasters scrambling to figure out what was going to happen, when, and where. Some areas really got hammered while others not too far away were mostly spared.

I left work early Friday to get prepared. Stopped to get groceries, stopped at Walmart and bought a couple space heaters, another extension cord, and a few candles. Stopped and bought a new chain for the chain saw, and finally some gas for the generator.

Now I have to return a couple space heaters and the extension cord but I will keep the chain because I needed a new one anyway.

Bummer on the Cowboys and Chiefs losing Dawn. I fell asleep when the Chiefs were down 12-7. It sounds like I didn't miss much until the very end when the Chiefs had a chance to tie it up.

Amy, We had 2.3" here last night which, when added to rain that had fallen earlier in the month, gives us about 3.42" for the month, which I believe is a little bit more than our Mesonet station has recorded for January so far. According to OCS's data (which still shows averages from 1971-2000 and never has updated to reflect the most recent decade through 2010), our average January rainfall is 1.75", so we have almost doubled that and we're only halfway through the month. Enough is enough now, and I want for it to stay dry for a while so the soil won't be too wet at onion-planting time in February.

Lone Jack, I'm glad y'all dodged a bullet. I know a lot of folks were lucky to dodge the worst of the forecasted ice storm and guess we all should be counting our blessings. I feel for the folks who did get hit by the heavy ice and especially those who remain without power today.

Tim watched the Chiefs-Steelers game for you and, not surprisingly, loved every minute of it but of course he was rooting against your team. He went to bed a happy man, proclaiming "at least one of our teams won and is advancing". About all I could manage was a lukewarm "yay, Steelers". lol. It really wasn't even that I expected the Cowboys to win (I didn't) but I sure hoped they would. I'm proud of the way that they fought back from an 18-point deficit and proud of the way they played all year long. However, in the playoff game, both the coaching and a lot of the play stunk in the first quarter, and that is their own fault. You can't play poorly in the first half and expect to win it in the second half. When Tony Romo went down with an injury early in the season, there is no way that ANYONE could have/would have expected the Cowboys to reach the playoffs at all, much less with a 13-3 record, so how can any true fans be disappointed? I've already heard enough from bandwagon fans bitterly complaining that the season means nothing if we don't make it to the Super Bowl. Give me a break. We had a lot of great sports entertainment all season and that should be enough. I also enjoy the Super Bowl more when my team isn't in it---it is a lot more relaxing and fun to watch that way. They had tornado warnings in the area of AT&T Stadium as the game ended and held the fans inside until the warnings had ended, and that might have felt like torture to some of the fans.

I would love for this past weekend to be the last ice storm we gardeners have to worry about this winter. Can we please have smooth sailing from this point into planting time? Traditionally, the time to plant onions here is around February 12-16th, which is not all that far away now, and planting is more fun if ice isn't falling.

The rain in OK was badly needed. I'm not sure how much it will affect any given area's drought classification but we'll see if it at least rolled back some areas to a lower drought class when the new Drought Monitor is released on Thursday.

Dawn

Dawn - I would definitely call the Cowboys season a success. They found their quarterback of the future and one of the best running backs in the league. They also have Romo under contract as trade bait which should bring them some good draft picks in return.

I heard this morning that teams that scored 2 more touchdowns than their opponent were 245-0 until the Chiefs managed to do that last night and lose.

Wow! Isn't that sad? Who wants to be the 1 when the statistic is 245-1? Since y'all were the higher seed, I just assumed you'd win, and I kept believing throughout the game that it was going to happen. I think I forgot how good Rothlisberger is when the stakes are high.

Oh well, next season awaits and your team and mine have a lot of positives to draw upon from this season. As painful as it is to lose in the playoffs, it sure beats not making the playoffs.

I do admire Romo for the way he has handled the QB thing. It has to be even more painful than he admits to lose your starting job to a rookie QB just because you got hurt and he had a chance to show what he could do. Tony's been a class act the entire time. He certainly could have lobbied hard, publicly, to replace Dak at a certain point when he felt healed, and he didn't do that. He didn't sow division, he didn't agitate, he didn't hate. I have nothing but respect for how he has handled this. The thing is, with all his statistics (and they look great on paper), he never quite succeeded in the playoffs and, in Dallas, if you can't win a Super Bowl, then the fans are never satisfied with how you perform.

Had the Cowboys gone all the way to the Super Bowl, I was going to plant one of my flower beds in silver, white and dark blue, which would have taken quite a bit of creative plant selection. Now, I'm off the hook unless I just decide to do it for fun anyway.

That does sound like fun! I, born in Wisconsin, Am a packer backer by birth. I do not watch football or even understand it. But in honor of my cousin who loves the packers and was hit by a car a month ago struggling to come back I may plant a packer bed which will be easier than a cowboy one. Thanks for the idea Dawn .My cousin will love it.

Oh Kim, I'm sorry about your cousin. What a terrible thing! I am hoping for a full, fast recovery from the injuries incurred. I've always liked the Packers, just not when they are beating the Cowboys. : )

There's a house in my neighborhood with Sea hawk blue siding. They went so far as to put the logo on the garage door. It really is an awful strong color for a house....

What a fun idea! Planting a garden bed in the colors of your favorite team! I'm not a football fan, but...that's a great idea. I still want a bed of herbs and plants mentioned in the Harry Potter books. Of course, JKR made up some of the plants, but a lot them actually are real herbs. (The family cauldron that my cousin has would look especially cute in that bed. Trying not to be envious. My cousin deserves it as much as I do, Right?)

Sorry about your cousin, Kim!

Amy, I bet that house really stands out. I agree it is an awfully strong color to paint a house.

Hazel, I bet some people have already planted Harry Potter gardens and you probably could find photos of them on Pinterest or by Googling if you want to see what they've done. Even the imaginary plants could be worked into the garden---you'd just have to find a real plant that matches the description of the imaginary plant and 'rebrand' that plant in your garden with the Harry Potter-related name. I've never read any of the Harry Potter books so have no clue what plants are mentioned in them, but people have been making theme gardens for as long as time....like Shakespeare gardens, Wizard of Oz gardens, Peter Rabbit gardens, Dr. Seuss gardens, etc. Theme gardens can be a lot of fun.

We had a Peter Rabbit Garden for two years when our son was married and had a young stepdaughter. The only problem we had with the Peter Rabbit Garden was that she wanted to leave the gate open all the time so that all the little cottontails could eat in Peter's garden every night. We sort of worked around that by feeding the wild rabbits in various locations around the yard so they could be well-fed without eating up our little garden.

Dawn

Thank you. It was hit and run on a frozen early morning. She was walking to work. The woman didn't clean her windshield and said she wasn't sure what she hit. Later confessed she knew but was scared and came back to see 20 minutes after the accident. My cousin is doing miraculously well :) since I never got my lemon garden planted last year I still have lots of yellow and golden seeds that will work perfect.

So glad your cousin is doing miraculously well, Kim! I'm glad the woman who hit her has a conscience and came back and eventually admitted what she had done.

Dawn, I had no idea that people had such fun garden themes!

Kim, Hooray for the miraculous recovery.

I had a lemon garden for a couple of years and it was one of the most fun things I've ever done. It was so fun to hunt down all the plants that had lemon scents, lemon colors and lemony names. I still have my potted lemon tree. Don't forget Lemon Boy tomato for your lemon garden!

Hazel, There are people who take theme gardens to extremes that I never would, but that is partly because I grow so many edibles. Many (though not all) theme gardens are built around a backbone of small trees, shrubs and perennials that fit the theme, with annuals as needed.

Within the confines of growing an edible garden with only a few perennials on the edges, I have grown rainbow gardens many times---where each raised bed featured one color of the rainbow, in the same order that the colors appear in the rainbow. I did that for 4 or 5 years and it really broadened my exposure to veggies, herbs and flowers of every color. Of course, the colors green and blue were the most challenging as this was well before we had actual blue tomatoes, but I still grew an old heirloom variety of tomato called "Blue" though it certainly did not have blue fruit. It had fruit that was blackish-pinkish-purplish and wasn't worth eating either. I'd like to do it again sometimes, but it does take an enormous amount of planning, plus an enormous amount of seed-starting to have plants from every color of the rainbow. Still, I'm glad I did it. I'd never grown many green flowers before that (only Envy zinnia) and found it fun to grow Bells of Ireland, Green Wizard rudbeckia and green-flowering gladiolus. I was younger then and had a lot more energy and spent a lot more time in the garden in the heat of the summer.

I've also grown a Chocolate Garden at times, featuring plants that produced dark flowers, dark foliage or dark produce (Chocolate popcorn, chocolate tomatoes like Cherokee Chocolate and Chocolate Stripes, Chocolate Habanero peppers, etc), dark colored flowers (basically dark red or maroonish flowers that could sort of pass for chocolate), and chocolate-scented flowers.

Just thinking about all the work I did with those theme gardens in those years makes me tired now. I wonder where I found the energy back then?

Dawn