GrowGirl

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Today's ice storm began in the Gulf of Mexico, as a warm low pressure system; as it rode the jet stream rapidly to the northeast, it rose up over a huge pool of Arctic air that has encamped over most of the central part of the country. Oklahoma City was the first victim, receiving an inch of ice in little more than an hour, leaving the city battered and splintered. It was then Kansas City's turn, as the moisture streamed northward; then the storm moved into southeast Iowa, on it's way to Chicago. During the night the freezing raindrops began snapping against the skylight; looking out the large back windows, the deer were silently standing about like pale ghosts in the ice and mist, backlit by the incongruously cheerful Christmas lights strung along our split rail fence.
Today we are encased in ice; trying to look through the open woods, it's as if you are gazing at opaque ground glass, faintly lit from within; the static appearance is belied by the crashing of broken limbs, sounding like shattering glass as they hit the frozen ground. Evergreens are bent to the ground in icy supplication. The Oriental Bittersweet berries festooning the tree limbs are like drops of frozen blood on the black branches. This is no pristine and beautiful winter scene; it's ugly and it's deadly for our wildlife... and winter has not even begun.

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