It's COLD out there!

January is traditionally the coldest month of the year in most parts of the Northern Hemisphere, and the Big Country is no exception. But below freezing temperatures are one thing....throw in precipitation, and we've got a mess!

So far this month, we've had two winter weather "events." The first one, on Monday, Jan. 5th, was somewhat limited in scope. A round of freezing rain moved through the area, causing chaos on bridges and overpasses during the morning commute. Of course, KTAB/KRBC was there, live, telling all of you to stay home....and not to get out on the nasty roads like we were. But by afternoon, temps were above freezing and everything was back to normal. (If you'll recall from my earlier blog, our own News Unit 11, a very nice Chevy Trailblazer, was a casualty of the ice on I-20. 11's still in the body shop, but the reporter is back at work!)

This week's "Deep Freeze," however, was the kind of winter weather event we only experience about once every year or two, on average. From 5pm Monday, until noon on Wednesday, the temperature was below freezing....and near continuous freezing rain/drizzle/fog coated everything with a slick sheet of ice, only to be covered by up to 1/2 inch of sleet on Tuesday evening.

I'm VERY proud of the efforts our entire staff put forth to bring our viewers the absolute best coverage possible. This includes all of the 100+ employees of KTAB/KRBC. In addition to the 30+ News Department employees, there are dozens of people behind the scenes in the Production, Operations, Engineering, Sales, Promotions, Business, and Traffic departments.



Anyway, back to the very cold weather! Here is a picture, taken by KRBC reporter Brittany Pelletz, of me and KTAB reporter Victor Sotelo standing behind one of our live trucks, ENG-2 (Victor is faking a frown because it's so cold). It's Wednesday morning, Jan. 28, and the three of us were doing live shots from the Olive Garden parking lot at Southwest Drive and Clack St. We had been there since 5am, informing everyone of the treacherous road conditions. Suddenly, around 8am or so, as Britt and I were sitting in the van with the heater at full blast (it was about 13 degrees outside), the generator died, and everything went silent. It turns out the generator overheated; this unit, putting out 12,000 watts of electricity, is powerful enough to power an entire house, is mounted in the rear of the van (most live broadcast trucks use on-board generator systems to provide power for all of the equipment). Since this generator was just recently installed, our engineers haven't yet finished installing the ventilation system...so, to keep the thing cool, at least one of the back doors of the van has to stay open. I guess a gust of wind closed both doors....the generator's engine overheated, and we were out of service! Luckily, since it was 13 degrees outside, it wasn't long before the generator cooled back down, and we were once again ready for live shots!

And as you can see in the picture, the roads were totally covered with nasty frozen stuff. Our live vans weigh up to 5 tons, and are very top-heavy. So what's the best way to drive on frozen roads???? VERY SLOWLY! However, there were still the large number of morons in their pickup trucks who think they're better than everyone else, and have little regard for laws, safety, and common sense.....