Yes, we are definitely getting the sleet right now. And I don't think it would be quite as bad if the wind wasn't blowing so darn much!! I was out earlier today to Grove and it was just mostly raining. Currently it is 29 degrees but feels like 15 degrees!! I am freezing my little piggies off because I am so cold natured. Guess I'll be snuggling up to my husband tonight to keep warm!! When we went to town today Wal-Mart was completely packed out. Good thing we weren't going there, otherwise I would've just said forget it. Everyone seems to get crazy around here when they hear the word winter storm or blizzard warning. They all scramble to the stores to stock up. There is no way you will catch me in Wal-Mart at a time like this.

I am getting ice. It isn't freezing rain; it is tiny little pieces of ice. It was raining. This ice just started and is already sticking to my wood box. I have my bathtub full of water, plenty of wood just outside my door and some inside in a tub. The bird feeders are full. I made a bed for the cats in the barn and put old carpet over the dog houses on the porch. The wood stove is too hot 78 degrees in here. I brought in my bag of potting soil in so I can winter sow. I have nintendo if the lights go out.... And I just settled down for a long winter's nap - not really.

Melissa,

I was just glad I had all my shopping done because we couldn't have gotten out of here today. Well, Tim got out to drive to work but even he said that he barely made it out of here by the skin of his teeth and the blizzard chased him all the way to Dallas. He has no plans to drive home in the morning. I asked him about the conditions at the airport and he said it was not good and was rapidly deteriorating and becoming even worse.

The wind chill here has been awful all dayand apparently something is wrong at our mesonet station because it has stopped calculating wind chill numbers. Our numbers have been very similar to the ones you're seeing now.

Helen, Those little pellets of ice are what we had in between the rain and the snow, and they saved our skin. Since they were frozen before they fell, they didn't stick to trees and power lines, and that saved us from the power outages here that have been seen in other areas that got freezing rain instead of ice pellets.

It sounds like you are all ready. If the storm treats y'all the same way it treated us, it will be a long, slow-moving one. The rain began sometime after midnight and we have had rain or sleet or snow in waves or bands ever since. It is supposed to end here in the next couple of hours. I don't know if y'all will have as long of a storm as we have, but it certainly has just crept and crawled slowly across the area.

Our local weather guys are calling this storm "epic" and "historic" and for us, it is. A lot of you routinely get a lot more snow than we do, so this one might not seem like anything unusual to you. For us, though, this is a monster of a storm. I am simply astonished at the huge number of stranded motorists. Were it not for the two hotels recently opened (the big one this year, the smaller one a couple of years ago) near the Winstar Casino, I have no idea where all these poor stranded people would go. It will take a few days to get all the cars and trucks out of the mud and the ditches and the pastures, etc., and get everyone back on their way.

Even if people manage to creep and crawl their way through Love and Carter Counties, the interstate is closed near Davis/Paul's Valley and then is also closed in/near OKC. So, no one at this end of the state is moving very much. Hopefully everyone in y'alls part of the region is already where they want to be for Christmas.

Y'all be careful and stay safe and snug and warm.

Dawn

Merry Christmas to Everyone!

Here it is Christmas Eve, and we're all stuck at home. Isn't that wonderful, though? Sometimes Mother Nature MAKES us stop and smell the roses....or the snow, so to speak!

Dawn - glad Tim made it to work safely. Will Rogers closed around noon today. My boss had delays in his flight to Minnesota around 9 and last I heard, he was still at DFW.

Here in NE Norman, we've got a full 11 inches if not more. I had to work this morning at the FAA and it was a complete "white-knuckle" time coming home. It took us almost 2 hours and we were ahead of the worst. Yes, DH took me and brought me back.

It is "epic" here. People are stranded on the highways just 10 miles from us. My youngest daughter is stranded on the other side of OKC. Helping her come up with inventive ideas as to why Santa isn't going to visit my grandson until he gets home tomorrow. Wished to H e double L she'd have listend to me!

You guys in the NE part of the state better buckle down. This one is something that we've not seen EVER... and I hope we don't again.

Merry Christmas!
Paula

Three years ago the 31st of this month we have an inch and a half of rain and then around 24 inches of snow in a little over 24 hours. West of us where me station is and on west they got up to 36 inches. So I know what you all are going through. Last spring when I burned my hand we got 12 inches. So have had two big blizzards in less thatn 3 years. The old timers always say they come in 3's. If true we have one more. Hope not. Hope everyone has found a safe and warm place and can hunker down till tomorrow. Merry Christmas to all. Jay

Last night, when I went outside to care for the animals, the wind was blowing a hard, fine powder; and it was COLD! It was hard to see, since the powder kept getting in my eyes, and I found that I tended to "breath it in" as well. By the time I finished, I had more than a quarter inch of the stuff piled on my hat and shoulders. Can't imagine anyone traveling in it, unless it was an absolute emergency.

By morning, even our Pyrenees and Anatolian are looking like they've had enough. I'm heating up some warm broth for them both.

We installed a new wood stove yesterday, just in time!

George

George,
Glad you got the new heater and are doing fine. After this storm many can see why I don't like snow. Here it usually comes with wind. I'm usually out in it at work. And at 2 in the morning by flashlight it isn't nice. The main part of winter I don't like and dread every year. Have always said when I retire was going to move to where they didn't get the blizzards. Maybe east and south of here. Guess I'll have to go further south than Dawn. LOL.
Glad it is over so everyone can enjoy their Christmas and travel safely. Wishing everyone a Merry and Blessed Christmas. Jay

Paula,

I am afraid your poor boss still may be stranded at DFW because they had over 150 cancellations yesterday. Tim said nothing much was moving last night. Most airport roads are closed.

Our firefighters got paged out to a housefire in Marietta very early this morning. Imagine your house catching fire as you are sleeping on Christmas Eve. (sigh)

I doubt we'll ever see another Christmas Eve like yesterday--they are saying it is at least a 50-year storm here, so the odds are slim we'll see another any time soon. Anyway, once is enough--we don't need another paralyzing storm like this at Christmas ever again.

George, Y'all sure did get the new heater installed just in the nick of time.

Jay, You'll have to move farther south than Fort Worth-Dallas because they got the same storm, although I think only 2-4" of snow in the big cities and up to 6 or 7" maybe a county or two west/northwest.

I like snow as long as I am inside looking out at it.

Y'all, we have a 30-40% chance of rain/snow here at our end of the state next Tues/Wed on days when the high will only be in the 30s. I think Santa Claus brought us El Nino for Christmas....or maybe El Nino brought Santa Claus to us this year.

Dawn

Paula, did you daughter make it home yet? I am in Edmond, virtually snowed in. Cept, of course, we took the snow shovels, and dug us out to the road. LOL, not that this helps, the road is really not passable.

Moni