Snow no show

Although sections of northwestern Oklahoma and the Panhandle received near-record amounts of snowfall from the winter storm that swept through the state Friday evening, most of Shawnee held little evidence of its fury by noon on Saturday.
Ty Judd, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norman, said the storm was brutal for parts of the state, but that wad of dry air spared Pottawatomie County and most of the cities and towns south of I-40.
“The track of the storm cut up a little farther north than we’d expected and a lot of dry air got caught up in it,” Judd said. “That really limited our snowfall totals in parts of the state.”
Stroud, located in northeast Lincoln County, reported around 4 inches of snowfall, Judd said, but no other areas in the Tri-County area received much more than an inch or less.
Other parts of the state weren’t that lucky. Fort Supply, Buffalo, Laverne, Freedom and Alva, all in the northwest, received 20 or more inches of snowfall and snow drifts in the area ranged from 4 to 8 feet. Fort Supply had the highest snowfall total, accumulating 25 inches of snow during the winter storm.
“The snow was piled so high in places that some people couldn’t even get out of their houses,” Judd said.
Roads in Cimarron, Texas, Beaver, Harper, Ellis and Woodward Counties were reported as closed by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol as late as 2 p.m. Saturday, an indication of the havoc the snow storm has wreaked on that part of the state.
Judd said the storm would likely vanish from the state Sunday morning and that no more winter weather is forecast in the near future.
The only fatality accident related to the winter storm in Pottawatomie County occurred early Friday when heavy rains and slick roads caused a Eufaula man to lose control of his pickup truck and collide head-on with an SUV driven by a Tecumseh woman.
---
Andrew Knittle may be reached at 214-3926.