Dallas Woe: Sleet & Snow
I don't know about you and where you are, but we in Dallas can't trust our meteorologists farther than we can pick them up and throw them. A more unreliable bunch, we've not known... ;-)
Last weekend, and for days before, we were warned far and wide about a huge ice storm headed our way. And we all watched avidly, hour by hour, for the storm that never materialized...until two days late. The "ice storm" that manifested here in North Dallas was tremendously mild. Another missed bullet. Pretty stuff on the plants, but very little on the elevated roadways. All roads dried up in the first few hours of sun. Thank goodness!
Just last night, our local stations -- all of them -- projected a near miss of ice that has paralyzed Austin and the Hill Country. We have about a 20% chance of precipitation, likely sleet, they all agreed. More coming this weekend.
At the ripe hour of 4:30 a.m. this morning, the sleet was falling and followed by the huge, wet "blobs" of particles we commonly see of snow around here, and it still falls now five hours later. After spending a few years in the Northeast, I'm always amazed at local folks here who think they can not only drive on icy overpasses easily, but do so at normal breakneck speeds. The end result is that State Farm will be exceptionally busy with auto accidents here for the next few weeks...
I'm staying put and making a big pot of Meteorologist Soup today. It starts by boiling beef bones for several hours...
Scenes from the back yard:
A modest showing of our rather expansive covey of quail. Morning doves, ringnecks and white wings feasting.
The Pittosporums are covered in long, thick icicles, caused by the melting of ice from the rooftop on Monday. Our temps have remained well below freezing since Sunday night. And thankfully, the ice melted from tree leaves and branches, too, sparing us here from significant breakage.
