I hope everyone is safe and warm.

The cold weather finally made it this far south, and we got what I'd describe as a light dusting of snow at the house---enough to sort of cover the ground in areas where there's gravel. mulch or soil, but not really enough to cover the grassy areas. It is ultrafine, powdery snow so what it really looks like is a fine dusting of flour all over the place....no big pretty snowflakes or anything like that.

Out on the interstate (I-35) and other elevated surfaces, we apparently had drizzle or something coat the roads before the snow arrived, so they are slick, people are sliding off roads in their vehicles, and our first responders have been out since around 4 am, as far as I know (maybe earlier in other fire districts) working motor vehicle accidents including rollovers. It probably is going to be a long day for all our law enforcement personnel, EMS personnel and firefighters.

Tim managed to make it back home between the first accident and the second one, so when he left here for the second one, he had a tummy full of a hot breakfast and coffee. And, for the record, we Fire Rehab people usually stay off the roads when they are icy, so unless we have a major structure fire or something, I'm not going anywhere.

Our temperatures and wind chills are nothing like what most of you already have seen, but we'll kinda catch up with y'all today or tonight now that the cold finally had made it this far south.

For anyone wanting to travel south on I-35 through south-central Oklahoma and across the Red River down into far northern Texas, please be advised that you're going to encounter icy, slick spots, especially on bridges, and probably you will see cars off the road. People have been sliding off the road for hours now. If it were me, and it were not an emergency, I'd just stay home. The I-35 bridge over Hwy 77 at the 8 mile marker is a special problem spot this morning, as it is whenever we have ice.

And, as I am typing this, pagers are going off again, for us, so our firefighters, cops and medics will run from one call (at the I-35 10 mile marker) to another (at the I-35 8 mile marker), and that's how I expect the rest of this day to be. I'm cooking a ham, so at some point, if we need to, we can feed everyone at the fire station because the local roads here (we're not elevated, and are in fact, low-lying) aren't bad yet, and I don't think any more snow is falling now. The medics are especially busy, as these icy road accidents seem to require more patients be transported to the hospital than the typical wrecks do. Before they can reach the hospital with one load of patients, they're being paged to another wreck to treat more patients. I wouldn't want to be them today---they work hard everyday, but especially on days like this.

I am about to venture out to feed the chickens, and to put out deer corn for the deer, cracked corn for the doves, wild bird seed and, especially, sunflower seeds for the songbirds, and to refill the 5 goldfinch feeders. I'll put out some water for them, but it will freeze up pretty quickly. I'll take hot water out periodically and pour it over the ice in the waterers to thaw them out for a while.

The dogs have been outside, pronounced the weather 'not fit for man or beast' and returned indoors as quickly as they could. I'm not complaining--our wind chill is `11 degrees, so we're pretty warm compared to many parts of OK, though cold for our part. Our temperatures are nice, though, all things considered. We stayed in the 30s at our house until around 4 a.m., so at least the trouble on the highways wasn't an all night long thing for us. We stayed warmer than expected longer than expected, and that helped a lot. It might be bad tonight though, unless the traffic on the highways is so heavy that it manages to melt off all the frozen precipitation (which often does happen).

What is it like where you are, and what are y'all doing today to while away the hours while the cold weather lingers outdoors?

Keep in mind---this is the cold weather we need to help control pest insects and bugs, and to help knock back persistent diseases, so let's try to at least appreciate that while we might not love the cold weather, we need it.

Dawn