There is something topographical with where the earth formed around here from the Boot Heels of the Ozark Mountains, to the Ouachitas of western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. Mt. Magazine in central western Arkansas (2,753 ft (839.11 m) is the ranges highest point between the Appalachians to the Rocky Mountains. More importantly, and from my Arkansas History classes in that ancient red book I can still visualize,"They are formed by a thick succession of highly deformed Paleozoic strata constituting the Ouachita Fold and Thrust Belt, one of the important orogenic belts of North America," (Arkansas Geological History).
Texas is more of a melting pot for weather systems where warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico mixes with the cold air of the north. The Jet Streams bring in the warm Pacific Air and tosses it on top of the cold air with the warm moist air below it. It's one of the reasons we have tornadoes the year round. Any month of the year can produce tornadoes. But, having said all that, it messes with our snow falls. We get few chances of snow, but when we do get them, its usually a wet slushy snow. And the lay of the land, the Jet Streams moving from north to south and the "westerly and southwest winds" pretty much steer the storms because of the upper air masses causing the area closer to the ground to be warmer and the snow melts just as soon as it hits the ground. We see snow on grasses areas, railings, cars and anything off the ground a bit. Now, I don't claim to be a weatherman by any means, but I do speak weather-ease and can hold my ground when I have to. But when I went to bed last night, I knew that when I got this morning there would be no snow, not even some wet pavement to be viewed. Right on! The weather service maps showed that the snow would be light here in the metroplex and that higher amounts of snow would be well to our south Imagine that! South of an experienced and certified snow shove boy. During the blizzard of 1978, I had a 14 foot drift in my driveway that took three days to clear. I also loaded the kids on a red plastic sled and pulled them down to the end of street that t-boned our own street to watch the snowmobiles racing on the Interstate. And I have seen 17 below zero F as well. I've had my share of big winter dumps of snow over the years. And I still love 'em!
