1-2", More or Less

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity for weather forecasters around the area. We have had severe storms and tornado warnings earlier this week as well winter weather advisories and winter storm warnings over the last couple of days and that was just this week. So school age children, their parents and teachers were glued to the tv as the talk of heavy snow and ice was in the forecast. Belle's reading group teacher even told her group to be sure to read their story on Wednesday night because they may not have school on Friday for the snow and their test would probably be yesterday. Kids were just giddy at the idea of no school and snow in the same sentence. Then there was yesterday.

Wednesday night, after I had tucked the kids nicely in their beds, I watched the 10pm news to see what the latest weather forecast was. We were not supposed to worry about anything until sometime into Thursday. Surprise!! The first front carrying frozen stuff that was supposed to roll in on Thursday was to make an appearance sometime Wednesday night. Now like all central/southern adults, when I hear snow or ice I started to inventory things.

"I've got 1/2 gallon of milk, a loaf of bread and three kids. Better make a trip to the store."

This time was no different except I thought I would have time to pick this stuff up on Thursday while the kids were at school. So I debated. Do I wake the kids up and run to the store for what I need? Or do I let them sleep and get it tomorrow when the scheduled rain comes in and melts it all before the next front. Being the pessimist that I am, I knew that if I went on Thursday night the bad weather would pass us by and I'd have three kids lousy for school. I knew if I waited until Thursday, they would be out of school and I'd have to drive three kids on ice to the store. So I waited. And school was cancelled. The south end of our county (where we live) didn't really receive a whole lot. I even stepped out into my driveway looking for slick spots. None. Lucky for me, I encountered no slick spots on my way to the store for milk (we live two miles away). According to another mother I ran into at Wal-Mart (buying junk food for her kids like I was for mine) the northern end of the county got a good bit of ice, the reason for no school.

Now by this time, forecasters were calling for us to receive 2-5 inches of snow and ice Thursday night. By the evening news we were down to 1-2 inches. This morning when I awoke before my alarm the snow was just west of the Mississippi River and was on it's way. School was to start one hour late unless the snow made it before it started and dumped the one to two inches on us.

The verdit?

That is the 1-2 inches of snow that we received and most of it fell while the kids were eating breakfast and dressing for the school day that wasn't supposed to be. Talk about let down.

(Forecasters were also calling for 4-8 inches in Missouri and Southern Illinois. Missouri finished at 6 inches this morning. Counties to the north and west of us also cancelled school this morning after receiving much more snow than we did.)