Either really lucky or really unlucky

This week, every state except Florida had measureable snow on the ground. Somehow Cape Girardeau has managed to avoid the heavy snow, receiving only an inch, most of which quickly melted. We're completely surrounded by areas that received more snowfall.

Depending on your point of view, we're either really lucky to avoid the problems the rest of the country has seen, or really unlucky to be deprived of a winter wonderland that everybody else is enjoying.

Winter, of course, is far from over. We actually could use some precipitation, as we've started the year below normal. The Missouri Bootheel is still experiencing an "extreme drought" and that line could easily shift toward Cape Girardeau if we don't start getting some rain, snow, sleet, or whatever.

Our next weathermaker, tentatively named Winter Storm "Electric Light Orchestra", could bring some rain, snow, sleet, or whatever starting Sunday and continuing off and on through Tuesday. The official forecast mentions the "S" word quite a few times:

SUNDAY: MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A 30 PERCENT CHANCE OF RAIN AND SNOW. HIGHS IN THE MID 30S.

SUNDAY NIGHT: CLOUDY WITH A 40 PERCENT CHANCE OF SNOW. LOWS IN THE UPPER 20S.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY: CLOUDY WITH A 50 PERCENT CHANCE OF RAIN AND SNOW. HIGHS AROUND 40.

MONDAY NIGHT: CLOUDY WITH A 50 PERCENT CHANCE OF SNOW. LOWS IN THE UPPER 20S.

TUESDAY: MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A 20 PERCENT CHANCE OF SNOW SHOWERS. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 30S.

The computer models don't seem too impressive with this system, however, and my gut feeling is that we won't get that much snow. Indeed, we may see more Plain Old Uneventful Rain than anything else.