Snowing...31º--35º

Winter Weather advisory in effect this morning for Joseph Oregon...Up to four inches of snow could fall by afternoon...Traveling could be treacherous...I think this is a little overblown!..The first snow is always problematic, catching people unaware...Think a little common sense to slow down might help!

Mona and I after a "flurry"

What did we do before, television, computers and their instant news...I can remember my Dad intently listening to the "crackling" radio news in the 50's in Lake Fork, Idaho, trying to get a handle on how many inches of snow we might get on any given day...Lake Fork/McCall is a snow belt...We lived three miles off of the main highway on a county road...County snow plowing equipment was very basic... It was impossible to keep the county roads cleared, when the snow was coming down, wind blowing a gale, with no end in sight...An almost daily forecast (from November thru March) repeated on the radio for that area, which included Boise (100 miles away) was, possible rain in the lower elevations and "snow flurries" in the mountains...After our first winter there, Dad figured out that for our area "snow flurries" in the mountains meant that we could wake up to two feet of snow in our front yard and more on the way...The hardest part was keeping food and water available for our animals...My parents kept our house well supplied with food, we had wood heat, could get by without electricity, so we were prepared if we were snowed in for two weeks at a time...If the weather turned cold (-40º was common) the snow would crust over and Daddy would take us to school on the bob-sled, horses and sled skimming across the frozen snow for the two miles to the school house...Eventually there would be a break in the weather and the county would come in with a D-8 Caterpillar and open a one track road.

Looking outside we have a couple of inches on the ground, still snowing and Herb just left to go to Schwabs and get the snow tires mounted on the car...Winter has arrived.