Winter is in! Part 1 ** 3:00 PM Final Update **

Okay y'all. I'm trying something new here - blog updates throughout the day. Here's the deal. Everyone is forecasting SNOW in Austin. Now you guys that live up in the Arctic belt - that range from Lubbock to Dallas - you get this stuff all the time, but Austin is not known as a winter wonderland. We've never had a white Christmas; in the entire 1990's decade we had a total of 1/2 inch of the white stuff. Thus far in the current decade we have had an inch and 1/2. Total. Adding up 4 different snow falls. You have to go back to 1985 to get a snowfall here of more than 2 inches at one time.

So, as we watch the evening news this Thursday night, the weather guy says, "Two inches tomorrow, Eighty percent chance." Of course he also said some models disagree. So, TxDOT is out tonight dumping 250,000 gallons of toxic de-icer on the overpasses, followed by tons of sand that will clog the sinuses for WEEKS afterwards. Will it snow? Or will it be the usual coating of ice that cripples the city and gives the body shops a very merry Christmas?

So keep checking back for updates. 

8 AM Texas time
Made it through the night with no snow. Got up numerous times to check. Or maybe that was the caffeine-laden Frape I had last night. We've assessed our situation and determined we are not sufficiently prepared for the onslaught, so we are making an emergency run for provisions. You know, stuff like Kleenex, pickles and Tabasco sauce. Loading the car with extra blankets, chains and MREs. Oh, wait. We don't have any of those things. Never mind. If you don't hear from us in the next 8 hours, tell the Search and Rescue we were going straight to Fran's and then to Walmart.

10:30 AM Texas time
It was horrific! The roadways were crammed with weary travelers trying to get home safely before the onslaught! Barb said it was just the normal morning rush hour traffic, but obviously she does not appreciate the situation. Everywhere you looked there was black ice. At least I thought so, but you really can't see black ice can you, UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE!! Thankfully we returned to the shelter of our home safely. Barb says she saw a snowflake, but I think she was just over-excited.

12:30 PM Texas time
The sun is shining! I think that's a bad sign snow-wise. And the temperature is up to 39, after a low of 37 when we made our provisioning dash. I don't think we're in Wonderland any more, Toto.

1:10 PM Texas time
SNOW! Oh, me of little faith. There are multiple snowflakes drifting around outside. As in more than a dozen! At last, all that preparation has paid off.

3:00 PM Texas time
It's over. More than a dozen doth not a snowfall make. The sky is blue, the weather advisory has been called off. The sirens I've been hearing are not emergency vehicles rushing to free people trapped in snow drifts. They are rushing instead to all the accidents because the streets are slick with de-icer and sand.

Evidently the snow gods picked Houston - not Austin - this time.

Sigh.