Go ahead and laugh.  I certainly am.  The weather has once again thrown the poor meteorologists for a major loop.

One can truthfully say the entire state is under siege by winter.  From the Red River all the way down to Houston, San Antonio, and Austin, residents awoke this morning to a region-wide mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain.  Surprisingly, and despite prognostications for light flurries, I woke up to heavy snow that quickly transitioned to sleet, which has continued for the last two or three hours.

As ubiquitous as the word becomes under these circumstances, roads and thoroughfares throughout the state are treacherous.  And we aren’t getting to or above freezing today.  That means what little traffic has passed this morning melted the ice on the roads, and now it will refreeze (this is already being seen around the metroplex).  Already we have tractor-trailers disabled and stranded around the area, but it’s not just the large trucks.  Several major arteries into downtown Dallas and downtown Ft. Worth have been rendered useless by cars stuck on the ice.  Even a DART bus slid right off the freeway just a bit ago.

News reports from as far south as Houston indicate heavy freezing rain and sleet.  What makes this winter storm surprising given that information is that the Texas Panhandle is clear of wintry precipitation, and those folks normally get a lot more of it than the rest of us.

To find the silver lining in this, yesterday was the big shindig for swearing in our not-so-illustrious governor, the nitwit Rick “I’m a Dick” Perry.  Most of the festivities had to be canceled because of the weather.  I’ll try to shed a tear.

Amazingly, the Dallas school district stayed open.  It’s the only school district in North Texas that is holding classes today.  They’re an odd bunch, that group, and apparently they lack a great deal of concern for children.  But whatever.  I’ve always been of the mind that school zones should have higher speed limits than regular roads so we can weed out the slow children and breed a superior race, so perhaps making them go to school when all officials are telling people to stay off the roads is another step in that direction.

So Texas still languishes in the grip of winter.  I love it, but I also appreciate the dangers.  Power losses have been experienced throughout the state, getting anywhere is an exercise in bravery and patience, and the cold temperatures generate all manner of concerns for water delivery, the homeless, wildlife, and the promise of relief on the roadways.  Still, this represents precisely the kind of weather I love most.  I’ll be staying at home and enjoying it… while I laugh at the scrambling meteorologists who keep tripping over reality and having to switch from forecasting to outcasting (forecasting weather during an ongoing event in response to dynamic changes and unpredictability).