Winter Storm 012326

Those of you who follow me know that I am a weather watcher. On Monday (January 19th) the National Weather Service of Fort Worth began talking about a possibility of a Winter storm this weekend. That's 4 days in advance!

Now as long as I have been watching weather I have learned that not only is winter weather hard to forecast, the forecast can change significantly that many days out! I typically don't start sharing posts on Facebook until the meteorologists are confident.

January 20th the National Weather Service of Fort Worth issued a "Winter Storm Watch" for Jan 23 - 25th.

Meteorologists are holding firm to their forecast with greater confidence. (We are in the dark purple strip on this map.

January 21st the National Weather Service of Fort Worth issued a "Extreme Cold Watch"

January 22nd Weather update. Confidence increasing at a winter storm.

Friday, January23rd the precipitation started as rain. It stayed rain until after midnight when it became sleet. We are extremely grateful we did not get the freezing rain!

Saturday, January 24th at 4:45pm

Sunday, January 25th all churches in Mineral Wells cancelled services. We had 1 3/4 inch of sleet. We did get a little snow toward the end of the weather system.

Some pictures of downtown (thanks to others who have shared photos). This view is looking west from downtown.

Highway 281 through downtown Mineral Wells, Sunday January 25th looking South.

Families flocked to a street in the Northwest part of town that has a really steep hill so they could slide down.

Schools were closed all week. I didn't go to work Monday or Tuesday.  Doyle and I went to the office on Wednesday to access the condition of our church parking lot. It was still a sheet of ice. After discussing it with our pastor we cancelled Wednesday night services.

I did go by Mom's on Monday (January 26th) to check on her and take her some meals. 4 wheel drive is very helpful and I took it really slow. At least she only lives half a mile from me. This is the view of Mom's house from the street.

Tuesday January 27th 

Thursday January 29th - The ice was very slow to melt once temps got above freezing, especially places that didn't get any or not much sun. The North side of Mother's house is the one she uses and it was going to need help.

I got out a shovel and went to work. I had a young man from our church build the wooden ramp for mother. He actually misunderstood what I really wanted him to do. I wanted a ramp from the door to past where the wooden ramp is. He is in the process of making something for her now. Plus he's going to smooth out the cracks.

A sample of the thickness of sleet.

Friday, January 30th - Almost a week after the winter storm we still had ice in front of the church and the rest of the building. This is looking out my office door. You can see my truck across the parking lot.

Doyle and I knew it wasn't going to melt before church on Sunday so we called someone we knew to use a skid steer to clear it out.

This is looking out my office door toward the part of the building that is the church. If you look close you can see part of the skid steer in the photo.

Have a good one.