What was predicted to be an ice storm of similiar magnitude as the Great Ice Storm 2007, turned into a pretty nice little ice/sleet/snow 1.3 inch event (at least from my perspective, the Okies largely disagree). Further south and east of the Tulsa area didn't fair as well.
I've talked about how Okies disdain winter and absolutely abhor any precipitation that falls from November through March. I think I realized why. They just don't know how to prepare for it.
As a state, Oklahoma has a variety of storm warnings & technologies in place that allow you to know a tornado is coming at ya as soon as the vortex is descending from the super cell (how's that for using a new vocabulary word from class last week). Okies have basements, storm shelters, emergency provisions, and weather radios in case of a storm. Municipalities have emergency coordinators that have every storm related certification possible. They know spring severe weather.
When it comes to winter weather, our town has sand. Yes. Sand Springs uses sand, and only sand, to treat ice. Back home in PA, we pre-treat our roads with brine, then salt, then plow (if necessary), then throw more salt on the slushy mix. Everything is calculated based on the type of precipitation, the road surface, the air temperature, the anticiated road usuage by vehicles. It is all very calculated and scientific. Here we just dump large amounts of the sand onto the ice to help with traction and call it a night. Given the name of our town, one presumes we have an endless supply of the stuff so it kind of makes sense.....in a way.....until the sand truck gets stuck on the ice on the way to help the fire truck stuck on the ice. Break out the kitty litter.
Yankees know winter and Okies know severe spring storms.
Anyhoo...onto my walk.
It was 20 degrees when I left the house with not a cloud in the sky. The sun was already working on melting the ice off the back of my car requiring less effort from me once I got back from my little jaunt.
Dustin's truck had gotten stuck at the bottom of our driveway the night before but he had managed to get it out by the time I left for my walk.
I walked down our street to the downtown part of Sand Springs.
This is the triangle (not square) in the center of town.
From there I walked down to my favorite running trail. I was passed by one runner and saw footprints of ones that had been through earlier in the morning. You can use this to bike or run all the way to dowtown Tulsa which is only 7 miles away. Tulsa has a great running/biking path system.
I walked back through the center of town to the little garden next to Dustin's work.
With the sun so bright, the ice on the wires and trees was starting to melt and I had to be careful not to walk under anything that appeared to be a big chunk for fear it would fall on my head. I also broke a sweat walking up the hill back home. Our town is very hilly by Oklahoma standards and I know this because no matter what route I take on my runs, the end is always uphill.
Tomorrow's temperature is suppose to be 45 degrees and it will get up to 54 on Saturday so all this white stuff will soon be a memory but, I'm enjoying it for this one day :)
2 comments:
Makes PennDOT look like world-class leaders in the field of snow removal.
Trucks without 4WD are essentially minivans. Ha!
It's no better up here in Wisconsin. They use sand and gravel, no salt, no brine. And they only plow once in the morning when everyone is headed to work so there is always an inch of snow on the roads. I never thought that I would extoll the virtues of PennDOT.
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