Seedmama, Some of the forecasters were saying that here, but like you I was taking a wait-and-see-what-February brings approach. Our biggest snowfall here last year was right around Valentine's Day. I still hope for good planting weather in March and hopefully earlier rather than later. Mother Nature might have a different idea though.

Jo, I hope you're OK. We have thick ice under our snow....one local truck driver said he thinks there's as much as 3 to 5" of ice in some spots down here, but at our house, it looks like only a couple of inches of hard ice under all the snow. I walk so slowly when I'm out there, in an effort to avoid slipping, that I proably look like I'm moving backwards instead of forward.

Scott, It's just a horrible weather pattern, heavily influenced by La Nina and by a negative North Atlantic Oscillation. Haven't we all watched for weeks as the northeastern/Great Lake/Atlantic coast states have been slammed repeatedly by storms? How about poor Australia? It is our turn now.

Often, with La Nina we stay warmer than usual and drier than usual and in January we did, but something sure has changed. I think it likely is the way the negative NAO is interacting with La Nina, but haven't researched it to see if that is what the experts believe is causing all this. La Nina has been a bit stronger than originally expected, going from a mild to a moderate La Nina. I guess we should be glad we don't have a strong La Nina.

Dallas is a mess after 4 to 7" of snow fell overnight and this morning. DS and DH are at work down there and say the roads are awful, as are ongoing power issues in some places. They expect to make it above freezing tomorrow so expect some snow melt, but I guess what everyone wants to know is how fast the snow will or won't melt.

Once everyone gets to JerryWorld the Super Bowl will be played inside in nice, climate-controlled conditions. Getting there, though, may be the problem.

Our roads are still a mess here and folks continue to slip, slide and roll off the highways. Why don't people use some sense and stay home?

Dawn

Jo,
I am truly sorry about your fall and hope you are okay.

Before I change out of my snow-dampened pants, I need to ask, will there be a YouTube video?

Seedmama

I wish someone would follow me around with a video camera. I am so clumsy I'd be a big winner on AFHV for sure. If I HAD a video, I'd post it becuse I am without shame. Someone somewhere does have a very unflattering picture of me falling into a giant closet.

Jo

You leave us hanging like that? Whose giant closet and why or how did you fall into it? You can't tell us part of a story and leave us wondering about all the details? We need details, Jo, details!

Dawn

I fell into a giant storage closet in the Poconos. That is where my friend stored her toilet paper, christmas ornaments, boots, gawsh knows what else. I was looking for the tp.

We were all at a cross-country reuinion and well on the way to toasted.

A very dear friend was nice enough to snap my fat butt right as it fell into the giant closet. I'll email her and ask her for the link.

Jo

Oh, my, I wouldn't touch that closet line with a 10 foot pole! (quietly snickering

I did hear on the weather tonight that following all this cold, snowy weather, around mid-February, we are supposed to go into a mild weather pattern......yeah, right, and I have a I have a truckload of vine-ripened tomatos to sell you right now!

I feel for you, Jo, being a real clutz myself. I can barely take a step anymore without teetering. I remember when I used to be quite light on my feet......memories....

Did you see the lady on YouTube who was texting on her phone while walking backwards in the local mall? She backed right up into the mall's fountain and fell in! That would be something I'd do, er, that is if I could walk backward and text at the same time.

Susan

Here is the pic of me falling into the closet. Worst picture of me EVER TAKEN.

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and just to get the bad taste out of your mouths, here is a better picture

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awwwww....girlfriend...been there, done that...but thank GOD no one has pics...that sweet one of you and that angel is "priceless". As a naturally curly-haired person myself...I'm loving it!!! The down-side, my youngest sister commented on my current FB pic...and asked why I had a pic of Chubaka on my profile. Ummm....think I must not have used the Jerri-curl product the day that pic was shot.

I too, can't chew gum and walk at the same time, but the paradox is that I can "dance" across a room with no bodily injury. What's up with that?

I'll have to go find my "chubaka" pic....

Jo, I use a lot of 7' and 10' poles in my garden. I make mine from treated dog-eared fence planks. I rip the plank in 4 pcs. and nail and glue them together. The 7' ones get a 6' and 3', the 10' gets (2) 6' pcs. I know you dont like treated wood, but you could do the same with any wood.

Cane and bamboo would be much better but I dont have a source for them.

Larry

I think I may rig something up out of conduit and trellis netting (I already have some). I just prefer the "look" of bamboo, but I'll worry more about aesthetics next year when I am designing my new garden. At that point, I'll rent a truck or a trailer or whateverf I need to do to make everything really pretty :).

Jo

Yesterday we were out to make snow, my daughter was begging to make big snow man. I fell down twice trying to control myself...DW laughing loud till she runs to bathroom. It was great fun.

Jo, I hope you are OK. You are daughter is such a cute angel. I am glad to know that Honda Odyssey can able to do some garden chores. As we are expecting twins, I am looking for 7-8 passenger minivan for hauling family as well some garden goods.

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Jo,

That's a funny photo and you know we're laughing with you and not at you, and you know that we all have our klutzy moments. Right now, at least, if we fall outside we can blame it on the snow and ice.

I love the photo of you and your adorable daughter together. As someone with naturally straight hair, I envy those natural curls!

Chandra, Your daughter is so beautiful and I bet she had fun making the snowman. From the smile on her face, I can tell she had a great time playing in the snow.

I am just like Priya. When I see Tim fall on the ice or snow, I just can't hide it and laugh out loud. Of course, I wouldn't laugh if he hurt anything more than his pride.

When snow falls next year, you'll have three little angels to photograph in the snow, although I guess the babies won't be vey impressed with it since they'll be so young.

I make teepees for beans and other climbers with limbs cut off of cedar trees. With their rough bark, the vines can cling to them easily. I just wire them together at the top with baling wire. With lots of wooded acreage, there's no shortage of cedar here, although we do have to cut it in the winter months when the snakes and ticks are not out and about in the woods.

At our house we have had sunshine all day long, so I am hopeful we'll have significant melting of ice off the roadways. Of course, we need for it not only to melt but also to dry off so we'll have dry, bare pavement. Otherwise it just will refreeze tonight. Our temperature at our house has already reached the forecasted high of 37, so I'm hoping we get even warmer. All the ice and snow on rooftops is melting and dripping so maybe if the sunlight and relative warmth continue, the building roofs will be clear of snow today.

I cleared all of the snow and ice I could off our front porch steps today. I've been keeping most of the snow off the steps, but the original ice that fell as freezing rain before changing over to snow was about 1.5" thick on the steps under the snow. It took a lot of salt, shoveling, scraping and even the pouring of hot, salty water over the steps, but I now have clear steps....as we sit here and wonder if snow will fall tonight as the forecasters say it will.

Dawn

OMG - I just heard from a friend that we are supposed to have worse snow this next week that what we got originally this last Tuesday! I have got to try to get out today - which looks like it may be the best day between now and then - and stock up AGAIN! I thought I had bought enuff for a week, and hey, I did! But, with more coming in, I don't want to take any chances. I have 8 heat sources now between my little plastic heaters, and my 4 cats (they are a great heat source when I'm sitting in the big chair) = 8!

Chandra, your little one is so pretty! I love when they get all bundled up and their little faces are all you can see - so cute!

Jo, you shameless thing! What a funny pic! I wish my hair would be either curly or straight! But, no it chooses to be wavy in spots and straight in spots. I just wear it up in a pony tail most of the time so I don't have to deal with a straigtener.

I finally got my LAST seed order in yesterday so will try to get some sown.

So tired of just being inside all day...........I need to find a solitaire game on the computer or something.

Susan

Chandra, your daughter is so adorable, and she looks like she had a BLAST in the snow.

Dawn, what a GREAT idea. I get lots of fallen limbs/branches around my yard, so I can make a teepee or two out of them. They are dead branches and not cedar so they probably won't last more than a season, but I don't need them to! So thanks for the fantastic idea!

Jo

Jo, You're welcome. What I try to do when gardening is ask myself how my parents or grandparents would have done it. As survivors of the Great Depression, they learned to be frugal and I hope I learned a few things from them. It seems logical to me to use the tree limbs I have here as opposed to running to the store and buying some sort of wooden stake or bamboo pole or something. Just be sure you don't use anything like willow that roots easily or you'll discovered you've planted a forest of trees in your garden! I've actually heard of people doing that. One of my neighbors told me my cedar limbs would do that, but that didn't. I thought he was probably joking about that, but it is hard to tell sometimes with some of these old farmers who have a dry sense of humor.

I originally used very long/tall cedar poles about 8 or 10' tall to make extra large 'bean teepees' for my son, niece and nephew when they were young. We'd plant them not only with beans, but with gourds and mini-pumpkins. The kids would use the teepees as forts or playhouses and also had great fun harvesting "their own" beans, mini-pumpkins or gourds. Our old dog that we had back then used to like to curl up inside a shady teepee to sleep while I was working in the garden. She was convinced that the kids' teepee was her outdoor dog house.

And I don't think the kids will be out of school forever....but they may be home most of next week. I hope you can maintain your grip on sanity until then.

Our weather here this afternoon is great, with a current temperature of 50 degrees and full, glorious sunlight all day long. The snow is melting off really well, but the thick layer of ice is not. In that respect, our yard is more dangerous now than it was on previous days. After everything refreezes tonight, I'm sure we'll have a really big mess because everything will be one big skating rink.

My porches are dry though, so they're in good shape until the next snow falls, and I'm about to head out the door to shovel, scrape and sweep all the remaining ice and snow off the barn's concrete apron and patio. Maybe if I can get it clean and dry now, it won't be a mess tomorrow. Now, if only the snow/freezing rain forecast for tomorrow would just miss us, then we'd have one good day tomorrow anyway.

Dawn

For stakes, I sometimes roam the streets in my car right before big trash day here in OKC. I can usually find materials for use as stakes.

Several years ago, I bought a package of 8' steel stakes that are painted green and look like bamboo. I still have a few of them around, too. You can get the 10' stakes, too. They are kind of expensive. I think I got mine at Horn's or Home Depot, something like that. Back then they didn't seem so expensive, but now they do. I know you can order them at online sources, but the cost of the stakes plus shipping would be too high for me. They're attractive, tho. Think I'll go dumpster diving and big trash hunting instead. That, or see if my neighbor will share some of his black bamboo with me. He has offered in the past. I might be able to cook a meal or two for him in exchange.

I did get out today, and the streets weren't too bad. My little Mazda just zipped right thru the big ruts. It was a bumpy ride, but no getting stuck at least. It was good to get out in the sunshine for awhile.

Susan

I still didn't get out, as I was waiting for the city guy to come back and turn the water back on. We just couldn't get it turned ourselves. I had a broken water pipe.

Well, he finally showed up around 6:30, and I took a nice long shower. One never realizes how much one uses water till one doesn't have it for a bit over a day. :)

I just hope, I can get out before it snows again....

Moni

Jo, your daughter is absolutely adorable!

Chandra, my 5 year old daughter saw your daughter's snowman photo over my shoulder earlier this evening and exclaimed that she was a beautiful princess!

Diane

I stepped out this noon to buy some seeds, along with seed and garden supply we also bought a garden cum family hauler "Honda Odyssey Touring"... my wife and daughter are very happy :-)

How best one can use (abuse!) Minivan for gardening-related activities? -Chandra

I have lots of bamboo here in Norman if anyone wants some. They are 15-20 feet tall with some as tall as 30 feet. I keep thinking I will build an arbor with it but I have been thinking that for years.

I got out... am at my daughters right now. It sprinkled earlier in OKC. Hopefully most side streets will get passable today.

Moni

impatience_7, I would like to have some bamboo to build teepee or trellis for beans and peas! Thank you -Chandra

If I had a truck to pick it up, I'd love to come harvest some. What a nice offer to make to your fellow OK gardeners!

This year I think I'll stick to branches unless someone from the Tulsa area with a truck is headed that way to get some and would consider letting me tag along and picking/hacking some too (I would of course pay gas, tolls, and cook you something yummy in exchange, but ONLY on the off chance that someone with a truck is already going to get some).

Chandra, where are you going from and what will you be driving? I know I can fit a few 12' lengths of conduit in my Odyssey, but only by placing them the whole length of the car up into the front passenger seat well, and you can't get fit much that way.

We got out today to get stuff to make dinner for the neighbors but it was scary. Our road is treacherous. All the stores are out of eggs but I did find a big carton of egg beaters left at one, so we're good.

Jo

I had to get out the 'owners manual' for my snow shovel yesterday and shovel the driveway for only the second time since moving here in 1981 and the first time was the Christmas blizzard of last year.
The local weathermen say these 12" blizzards are 100 year events and we've had them the last two seasons. I guess it would be worse but for 'Global Warming'...

Keith

Keith

Keith, ROTFLMAO! Heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee. Now, I think mine is falling off, too.

Impatience - very nice offer, but I don't get to Norman much.

Chandra, I forgot to tell you that Marilyn Stewart of Wild Things Nursery will be at the Norman Farmer's Market (there on Robinson?) on April 2nd. She is just the best source for native plants. She always travels with "friends", too, like caterpillars and chrysalis's. It would be fun for your daughter, too. Great prices, great plants, great people.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Wild Things Nursery

Well, out here in rural NE Norman, I can't believe how much snow has melted today. Our back deck thermometer says it's 50, but other readings say it's only 45. Doesn't matter what the number is as long as it melts!

We ventured out yesterday to restock on supplies. It's true what they're saying about the WM's. We only stopped for DH's Rx's. We were also at Sam's where I did find eggs. Homeland was surprisingly well-stock (except for eggs...ALL gone.) Most main roads in Norman were wet but clear. Neighborhoods still looked bad, but maybe today they got a good melting. Here - they're saying the major schools should be open tomorrow, so my grandkids may survive after all! NOT looking forward to the next round this week which is supposed to give us another 6". Ugh....

It's Super Boy Sunday! Time to get seeds started!

Paula

Susan, Thank you for the info on Wild Things Nursery. I have visited Norman's Farmers market many times last year, might be missed that particular day. I have marked my calender for April 2. -Chandra

Usually weather threads last a few hours but this one has lasted days had 65 postings, and the title is still true. When will it ever look good again???

Paula,

Our big melt was yesterday (we topped out at 53 degrees and had sunshine all day long) although the roads still had some slush that would have refrozen last night, except we stayed above freezing all night long and all day today, so far. Woo hoo! Our ice and snow are almost completely gone. Of course, now we have thick goopey clayey mud, but it is better than slipping and sliding on ice.

We decided to make the trip to Gainesville this afternoon to the store (three stores actually....Tractor Supply, Home Depot and Wal-Mart) and try to stock up on everything we might need for the next week just in case this week's snow or wintery mix storm is worse than expected here.

The roads were fine. The stores, on the other hand, were a zoo. People were shopping like there was no tomorrow. In our Wal-Mart, there was almost no fresh produce at all....no salad, no potatoes, no onions, etc. They had just put out a nice batch of newly-arrived oranges, grapes and strawberries, but had very little of anything else. We didn't need to buy any produce, but I thought it was interesting how wiped out they were. Lots of the meat cases were empty, and they were short on Blue Bell ice cream, chicken, hamburger meat, bread and black oil sunflower seeds for the birdies. The cashier said yesterday was more of a zoo than today, but added that a new shipment of eggs had arrived today so they did have the egg shelves restocked again.

Despite gray, dismal drizzly skies we've stayed above freezing so have had only rain, and I'm not complaining. I don't think we'll get the 0.5 to 1.0" of snow/frozen precipitation they forecast and, again, I'm not complaining.

The mid-week storm isn't "supposed to be" a big deal down here in southern OK, but that's assuming the forecasters are right, and I'm not sure how much faith I have in their aability to pinpoint the snowstorm's location, based on how far off they were on Friday's storm.

I didn't even start seeds today because I got too busy doing other things. Guess I'll aim for starting seeds tomorrow. A day or two or three doesn't make much difference any way.

Dawn

Carol - I KNOW, RIGHT? LOL!!!

Dawn - I understand your skepticism....but I still get a bit antsy. In 2009, I really thought they were being a bit dramatic on the forecasted blizzard....until I was sitting at home snowed in on Christmas Day and for 4 days afterward. It was the second worst Christmas in my entire life. Since then, I live by the "BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY" line! I think the Rolling Stones hade a lyric "I may be wrong, but I may be right"...maybe all our forecasters are in that genre!

I didn't get my seeds started today either...but I did gather all my trays and supplies! That counts, doesn't it?

Susan and Dawn, our daughter FINALLY did make it in Friday evening at 7. We told her she brought the clearing skies with her, because it snowed all day and was still snowing when we arrived at the airport. About the time her plane landed, the snow stopped and as we drove back home we could see stars because the sky was clearing from the west. It's a little funny because nearly every time she comes, we have some kind of weather event. Usually it's storms or tornadoes. She misses our good old Oklahoma thunderstorms in Seattle, so we accuse her of stirring up weather while she's here. But this time the weather actually cleared when she got here.

Jo, I'm so sorry to hear about your fall, but really enjoyed your funny story and the pictures, especially the one of your daughter. She's adorable!

Suzie

Paula,

I'm relieved we didn't get the inch of snow originally forecasted to fall today, and I'm happy the hordes of folks leaving Cowboys Stadium after the Super Bowl didn't have to deal with ice and snow either.

I survived watching the football game with a DH who grew up in Pittsburgh and has been a Steelers fan his whole life. With Pittsburgh playing more poorly than OkieTim expected, watching the game with him was like sitting in a room with a thunderstorm.

The Winter Storm Watch that covers most of y'all for Tues/Wed doesn't include Love County. The NWS does this every time. If they leave us out of the Winter Storm Watch/Warning, we get hit by a storm. If they include us in the Winter Storm Watch/Warning, nothing happens. Based on that, I look at the winter storm forecast and then expect the opposite thing to happen. It is a pathetic system, isn't it, but it works. Mostly I watch Gainesville's forecast across the river and expect our weather to be more like theirs than like Oklahoma's and that tends to work out pretty well.

Maybe I'll start seeds tomorrow. With gray, gloomy skies and cold weather outside, I don't feel the need to hurry up or rush the process. I wish we had a crystal ball and could look down the road and "know" what the weather will be like one month from now. (sigh) I'll just be happy if my soaking wet garden is dry enough to plant onions when they arrive from Seedmama's big onion order.

With all the rain, sleet, snow, etc., we haven't had a grassfire or wildfire in our county for 7 days now, so that's been a nice break. We did kind of make up for it with all the vehicle accidents and a structure fire or two, but it is rare that "nothing" happens. There's always something going on, but right now it isn't grassfires and I am glad.

Suzie, I'm glad she finally made it. Is she going to be in town a while? Just let us know, so we can see if we can whip up some interesting weather. Had she been down here in Love County last week, we had a really nice thundersnow storm with thunder, lightning and snow for a couple of hours. That's kind of hard to top but for her sake, we could try.

Dawn

I have decided that schools will never re-open, so I am going to let my kids "help" me wintersow today. Grant me strength.

Jo

Suzie - I knew we were related, LOL!!!! My son lives in Seattle. He works for Chihuli, both he and his dad. His dad is the one who supervises and does glass blowing, after teaching at Tulane for many years. Such a small world!

I am soooooo glad she made it in, and you guys made it safely to the airport in the snow! Wow! I remember driving to the Tulsa airport (did she come into the Tulsa airport?) in an ice storm back in 1987. It was THE worst icestorm to drive in, once that covered the state practically. The worst part was driving on the turnpike with the semi trucks throwing ice on my windshield. I really thought they were going to shatter it, and I couldn't see at all for a few seconds that seem like a lifetime when you're trying to stay in your own lane on the highway, or not drive off of it. Never again....

Anyway, glad everything worked out well. Now I wish my son would come back for awhile.......but I think he's getting ready to head to Chihuli's house in Sun Valley. Drat....I sure miss him.

I saw this morning that the forecasters (News9) have lifted the heavy snow warning from very southern Oklahoma, but they say that could easily change, too. Well, I'm ready. It does seem like I've spent more at the grocery store getting ready for these storms. The guy at Homeland did tell me to get eggs Saturday morning if I needed them because they weren't getting their deliveries that they had anticipated. Very nice of him. I didn't need eggs, thank goodness. But I usually get mine from Braum's anyway. Which is a good idea for anyone who needs milk, eggs, bread, etc.

Susan

I really hope the forecast is wrong because I've had my fill of snow this year. But at least we warmed up enough this weekend that last week's snow is completely gone. Now we just have to worry about the tons of gravel that are all over the roads.

Leslie

This is what our meteorologist said...

This is a WINTER STORM WARNING for 8 and 9 Feb 2011 for Central Oklahoma and surrounding areas. Up to 10" snow will fall from Tuesday Night until Wednesday noon. While it is not forecast to be blizzard conditions - it is going to be just on the maximum end of Winter Storm WARNING with temps with wind chill of -15�f!

I *doubt* Norman Public School will have school Wednesday and possibly Thursday. Area schools and OU I do not know about at this time. This is the last e-mail I post for this storm unless there is a Blizzard Warning but circumstances do alter cases! I can be e-mail, texts, or called anytime for this storm.

Susan, oh my goodness, your son works for Chihuli! When my daughter was growing up she wanted to be a glassblower (and a marine biologist, go figure). Any time we were on a trip and there was a glassblower we had to take her to see them. She still loves it. And Chihuli is the most beautiful glasswork ever! What an amazing experience that must be to work there. My daughter loves Seattle. She's very independent, and she decided a few years ago she wanted to live there. Well, she started doing her research, lined up some job interviews with non-profit organizations similar to the one she worked for here, landed a job, then packed as much as she could into her car and drove up there with her best friend to keep her company on the trip. She found a little apartment and a month later we packed up the rest of her belongings in a U-Haul and drove them up there. We stayed a week and helped paint and fix up her apartment, then had a wonderful trip home down highway 101 on the west coast. That was 4 years ago and she still has the same job and still loves Seattle as much as she did in the beginning. I'm thankful for today's technology because with Skype and cell phones we can keep in touch so easily, and she makes it home 2 or 3 times each year. Wow, your experience driving to the airport in an ice storm was really awful. Snow is one thing .... ice is another matter entirely. I will drive in snow, but the only thing that would get me out on ice is a true emergency.

Dawn, she would love a good thundersnow storm! Send one up this way before she leaves Friday if you can. JUST KIDDING!!!! She got a big kick out of Jim Cantore on The Weather Channel the other day when he was all animated about a thundersnow storm.

Suzie

Yeah, Tony (my son) loves it in Seattle. It is expensive to live there, though. Mike studied glassblowing in Ireland - the heart of glassblowing artistry, if you are really into it. What a marvelous place to be, IMHO. My son is single, BTW!!! LOL!

Hey, who knows, you might get a thunder snow up your way. Are you in NE Oklahoma? I am actually from SE Kansas about 50 miles North of Bartlesville. Very pretty part of Kansas.

Susan

Suzie,

You never know, she might get a thundersnow storm. We've had a lot of them in recent years.

I grew up in Texas just about 80 or 85 miles south of where we now live in Oklahoma, but I'd never even heard of thundersnow until we moved here. I won't say we have thundersnow here at our house every year that snow falls, but probably about every other year. We had it last year, and we've already had it this year.

Jim Cantore was very entertaining the other night. I'm sure a lot of that is part of the "show" he puts on for the camera, but I also think he was shocked to see thundersnow that far north.

The other weather phenomenon we have here that I don't remember having in Texas is derecho winds. The first one we experienced here came during the night with 60 mph winds and hit the house so suddenly and so hard while we were sleeping that we thought a semi-truck or an airplane had hit the house. I also had about 20 flats of plants on the screened-in porch (so it must have been April) and we had to run out and bring them all into the house because the temperature plunged probably 30 degrees in 10 minutes when the derecho wind hit the house.

I think we've experienced 3 or 4 severe derecho wind storms at our house since then. The one I remember best, the local met on the TV news at noon told us it was coming and told us if we went outside 5 or 10 minutes before it was due to hit our area, we'd hear it coming like a "mighty rush of wind". Of course, Tim and I went outside 10 minutes before it was s supposed to hit and went down to the road so we'd have a clear view of it coming by looking up the roadway (too many trees around our house). Sure enough, a few minutes later it came roaring towards us like a freight train (we could hear it for a minute or more before we could see the blowing of the vegetation begin) and we went from clear skies to dark grey ones in about a minute as the wind blew through and the temperatures plunged.

The other one I remember was a severe derecho squall line with multiple bow echoes accompanied by tons of lightning. This time, the TV met kept cutting into regular programming to warn that anyone working outside needed to get inside by a certain time. Our barn-style detached garage was being built then, and the buys working on it were welding steel beams together. I talked with them about the weather and convinced them to heed the warnings, get down off the structure, put up all their tools and head home. They literally were driving down the driveway when the derecho hit here and the first raindrops started falling, and we sure did have lightning! I was glad they weren't up on that metal framing when it hit.

You've got to admit, Oklahoma's weather is never, ever dull.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Facts About Derecho Windstorms

Susan, I'm in southwest Logan County, between Edmond and Guthrie. I try to remember to put that in the zone info box when I post, but often forget. Do you live in SE Kansas now, or are you from there originally?

Dawn, I have lived in Oklahoma almost all of my life (spent a few years in New Mexico as a young girl) and have always kept up with weather but I have never heard the term derecho windstorm before now. That's a great website and there are some amazing photos! I have experienced a few thundersnow storms. My daughter said Seattle had a hailstorm yesterday, which is a rare event. She thought it was hilarious when she saw the pictures of what they called hail, because it looked much more like sleet than hail, in her opinion. And being an Okie, she's an expert in what hail looks like :).

Suzie

Suzie,

I think we may have had some derecho winds when I was a kid growing up in Texas but they didn't call them that then. They're a lot like a fast-moving blue norther, but with such a very foreceful wind!

That's so funny about the hail storm. The worse hail I've ever been in was baseball-sized hail when I was a freshman in college. I drove to work in the hail (it started falling when I was on the highway, so I really had no choice but to keep going since stopping in the middle of a highway with no shelter wouldn't have been smart either) and then, when I arrived at our building just a couple of miles off the freeway, my boss stood there with the exterior door to the office building open yelling at me to come on and run through the hail into the building. Stupidly, I did so. Now that I'm older and wiser, I know that he and I both were dumb and I'm just lucky a baseball-sized hailstone didn't hit me in the head and kill me. I did use an umbrella (go ahead and laugh here) which, of course, was shredded by the hail.

I know weather everywhere is relative to whatever you're used to. Tim's family in Pittsburgh has a entirely different concept of "hot weather" there compared to what we consider hot weather here. Of course, what I consider frigid cold is weather they think is warm enough to run around in while wearing shorts and T-shirts.

I keep watching the weather tonight and wondering if the cold is going to get "here". It has been 44 degrees at our house since about 5 p.m. and just isn't changing....not that I'm complaining, but originally the NWS said we needed to be indoors by 9 p.m. because the snow would make it dangerous to be out after that....then they slid it to 10 p.m., then they slid it to after midnight. Now I'm wondering if the cold will get here before sunrise. Maybe it will sneak into town while we're sleeping. It wouldn't hurt my feelings if somehow the snow fails to materialize.

Dawn

Well Dawn, I think the cold is just about to hit at your house. The map makes it look like we are getting snow, but so far we have been in the donut hole. I think it is really close tho, and our temp is 17 with windchill of 7.

It's here now. 21 F and snowing pretty hard. We have about 1 1/2" new snow on the ground.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Snowing here and husband had to go into work to meet with the new CEO who flew in from Delaware yesterday. It would not have been good if he couldn't make his first meeting with a boss looking to streamline the company. I was pretty nervous about him driving in the snow, but he's there, and hopefully by the time he heads home the snow will have stopped and the roads will be cleared.

Jo

Carol, I gave up waiting for it to hit here and went to bed a few minutes before midnight. It was still 44 degrees at our house at that time and the wind had just shifted from E/SE to E/NE to mostly N. Tim and I expected the big temperature plunge to hit as the wind shifted but already had figured out the snow wasn't going to amount to much.

Today I awoke to 16 degrees and light, blowing snow with a wind chill of -5 around 6:30 a.m. We now have warmed up all the way to 17 and then dropped to 16 again. There is not much snow on the ground....maybe 1/2" at the most right now.

It wouldn't surprise me if we end up with an inch or less. Unfortunately, some of it has fallen briefly as freezing rain and then sleet, so the roadways might be worse here than people are expecting.

George, I hope y'all don't get too much more snow. I would think everyone there must be thinking "enough is enough already".

Jo, I'm glad your DH made it in to the office OK and hope his meeting with the new CEO goes well. Tim always seems to make it in to work in snow and ice despite having to drive 85 miles one way. Having said that, once he makes it to Dallas, he often stays there until the roads are clear again.

For us, this looks more like a wind and cold event, with the precip being a minor issue. Still, I hope everyone here in our area has the good sense to stay home if they don't absolutely have to get out in this weather. I've already heard a couple of reports of cars sliding off the intersate but I'm not hearing huge numbers like we had with the other 3 snowstorms we've had here in 2011.

I hope everyone is able to stay warm and safe today.

Dawn

I am watching channel 5 in Ft. Smith and they are saying Springdale Ar. revieved 3 years worth of now in 4 hours, I think they said 14 inches and still snowing.

The traditaion continues for us, most moisture for the past two years has gone through either north or south of us. We now have around three inches, we only got 3.5 inches the last snow. I expect we may get a little more than that this time.

Larry

We were on the very western edge of the snow fall. Here at the station where I work which is 20 miles NW of where I live we got around 2 inches. 8 miles further east at the main station was 3-4 inches and at my house was 5-6. Another 17 miles to the E they got over 8. We hit -2 for a low but heading up now. They were saying clearing by noon but it was clear at 5 o'clock. So hoping it warms more today than they thought. Saying 70's by early next week. Now if that won't be a shock to everything. Last night was the first time since I started call last Thursday I haven't been called out. Tonight is my last night on primary call although I'm always on secondary call. Hope everyone has been able to stay warm and dry. Jay

Jay, I am glad I don't have to work out in this weather.

I like you guys and all, but I am not stepping outside at 14 degrees with a 6 wind chill just to take a picture, but I will show you my view from my computer. Ignore the window screen, please.

Up front is the grill which had very little snow on it from last weeks snow. In the center of the picture are metal table and lawn chairs. The glass top table had melted and packed down to about 2 inches by yesterday. so most of what you are seeing there is new snow. If you sat in the chair, you would be sitting in 2 or 3 inches of snow. As you can see it is in the middle of the yard, so that isn't drifted snow. We still had a lot of snow on the ground but it had compacted and frozen before this snow.

Here is a link that might be useful: Still Snowing