Warning: DEEP FREEZE & SNOW AHEAD IN NORTH TEXAS JUST IN TIME FOR THE SUPER BOWL

This afternoon the National Weather Service issued one of their "SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENTS" all in CAPITALS, which in Internet speak indicates one is shouting.

Apparently our recent bout of balmy warm weather in North Texas will be coming to an end by Monday night with the arrival from cold Canada of an Arctic cold front.

Snow is possible on Wednesday, with a chance of significant white stuff falling on Friday. Friday is the day of some of the Super Bowl Parties that I have not been invited to. With many more on Saturday. That I have also not been invited to. Followed by Sunday's biggest Super Bowl Party of all. The actual game. Which I may watch on TV.

Methinks Mother Nature is conspiring with the Powers That Be to deliver an icy punch that probably was not what the NFL was looking for when they agreed to come play a game in Jerry Jones' shiny new stadium.

Below is the National Weather Service message in its shouted entirety....

...WINTRY WEEK AHEAD FOR NORTH TEXAS...

AN ARCTIC COLD FRONT WILL MOVE INTO NORTH TEXAS MONDAY EVENING... AND SWEEP THROUGH ALL OF NORTH TEXAS BY MID-MORNING TUESDAY. TEMPERATURES WILL FALL THROUGHOUT THE DAY TUESDAY...WITH AFTERNOON READINGS DROPPING INTO THE TEENS IN AREAS NORTHWEST OF FORT WORTH. ALL OF NORTH TEXAS IS EXPECTED TO BE BELOW FREEZING BY TUESDAY EVENING. THE NORTHWESTERN HALF OF NORTH TEXAS MAY REMAIN BELOW FREEZING UNTIL FRIDAY.

FREEZING RAIN AND SLEET WILL IMPACT MUCH OF NORTH TEXAS ON TUESDAY. THE ACTIVITY MAY TRANSITION TO SNOW LATE IN THE MORNING NORTH OF I-20. A WINTER STORM WATCH IS IN EFFECT GENERALLY ALONG AND NORTHWEST OF A LINE FROM BRECKENRIDGE...TO MINERAL WELLS...TO GAINESVILLE...WHERE ACCUMULATIONS OF SLEET MAY EXCEED 1/2 INCH. ADDITIONAL ICE AND SNOW ACCUMULATION MAY OCCUR JUST SOUTHEAST OF THE WATCH AREA AND WINTER WEATHER ADVISORIES WILL BE ISSUED TOMORROW FOR MORE OF THE AREA.

GUSTY NORTH WINDS WILL COMBINE WITH THE FRIGID TEMPERATURES TO PRODUCE WIND CHILLS IN THE SINGLE DIGITS AND TEENS TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY. WIND CHILLS MAY FALL BELOW ZERO TUESDAY NIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY MORNING ACROSS THE NORTHWESTERN HALF OF NORTH TEXAS.

SNOW FLURRIES WILL BE POSSIBLE ON WEDNESDAY...WITH A CHANCE OF MORE SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL ON FRIDAY.

DURING EXTENDED OUTBREAKS OF COLD WEATHER...IT IS ALWAYS ADVISABLE TO BE PROACTIVE AND PROTECT EXPOSED PIPES WITH INSULATING MATERIAL...AND TO LEAVE A WATER FAUCET SLOWLY DRIPPING OVERNIGHT. OUTDOOR PETS SHOULD BE PROVIDED APPROPRIATE SHELTER...AND RESIDENTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO DRESS IN LAYERS TO AVOID THE IMPACTS OF COLD TEMPERATURES AND WIND CHILLS. ANYTIME TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO FALL BELOW FREEZING...TURN OFF AUTOMATIC SPRINKLERS. SPRINKLER SYSTEMS RUNNING IN SUB-FREEZING TEMPERATURES CAN CREATE HAZARDOUS DRIVING CONDITIONS.

A Freezing Monday Morning In Texas With Sweet Chili Sauce

You are looking out at my icy 2nd Monday of the last year of 2010 view, this early morning of December 13.

It is 26 degrees out there. Brrrrr.

It is about twice as hot here up in the Seattle zone. Where heavy rain continues to fall with the rivers now in flood mode, closing a lot of roads, due to mudslides, with Amtrak no longer able to make it to Portland.

My distressing ailments of the last week seem to have abated for the most part. This pleases me.

Yesterday I went to Chinatown in Arlington for the first time in a couple months. I'd run out of chili sweet sauce, oyster sauce and some other good stuff. I went to Saigon Cho Market at Pioneer Parkway and Collins Street first. They did not have the sweet chili sauce I wanted. So, I went to where the former occupant of Saigon Cho moved to, to a former Albertsons near 360 on Pioneer Parkway.

I forget what the name was of the market that moved from Pioneer/Collins to Pioneer/360, but it is no more. Yesterday I saw it had turned into Hiep Thai Arlington. And it was its Grand Opening. So, I got a lot of unexpected good stuff.

I don't know why the Chinatown markets are not more popular with the Anglo population. I love how I go in one of these markets and I am the only white guy. It is like getting to visit Viet Nam, Thailand and China. Actually, mostly Viet Nam. One of the strange unplanned for consequences of one of America's ubiquitous wars. As in a large number of Vietnamese Boat People ended up in Arlington, creating a thriving community and adding one more nice patch to the beautiful American quilt.

I am going to brace myself against the cold and get in some aerobicizing today. I have been borderline sedentary the past couple days.

It is currently not windy, unlike yesterday. I am hoping the current no wind remains steady.

Freezing This Sunday Morning In Texas

It is 32 degrees at my location on this second Sunday of the last month of 2010.

Those 32 degrees must be why the view from my window this morning is a bit frosty.

I seem to have recovered, finally, from whatever it was that was causing me a respiratory malady. Did yesterday's wind blow the bad stuff away?

Was there bad stuff in the air of late? A lot of locals seemed to be having some breathing woes.

In Texas there is no state agency that monitors the air quality in any meaningful way.

Because Texas does not have any state agency that monitors the air quality in any meaningful way, the federal government tries to help with air and water quality issues.

Like in the past week, or so, the EPA was appalled to find that the drinking water supply to some homes in south Parker County had an acceptable level of methane and other bad stuff. Methane is another name for natural gas.

The Texas state agency that should have been appalled that the result of some poorly regulated Barnett Shale Natural Gas Driller had been contaminating a water supply, instead made the EPA and the federal government intervention the issue, making the embarrassingly bogus claim that Texas had looked into the water problem and saw no problem.

Anyway, I'm glad to be back breathing easier. For now.