Unless your home zip code is in the 96800 series, it is extraordinarily difficult to feel superior about winter weather in southern Texas. But today a brief whiff of “Really?” was in the air. 

It started Thursday night when a newscaster interrupted Gray’s Anatomy to warn us citizens of ominous weather conditions. People were asked to delay running appliances such as dishwashers or washer/dryer combos. With everyone turning up furnaces, the grid was in danger of causing brown-outs.  

Overnight the area did end up with a respectable ice storm which left a quarter-inch glaze on every uncovered surface. But my goodness, the bridges were closed, streets were deserted, businesses were shuttered, and schools declared, “A Snow Day.”

By Friday noon, the city had begun to shrug its shoulders. Within an hour the ice was a memory. The weather story was the local paper’s major lead this morning. To be sure the weather service was calling it “quite possibly the most significant ice storm in Corpus Christie history.” 

The parks were full of deliriously looking kids sliding on the ice-covered grass while parents hovered nearby. A long-legged girl careened on one leg on her boogie board and a bundled-up toddler with a huge grin scooted down the slightest of hills with his dad.

It was pitiful. I felt like calling someone to send in some snow. Couple hours later, it is 65. So never mind.