This is a zoomed in portion of the photo above:

 
I shot this photo outside my front door around 4:30am during a break in the rainfall.  This is roughly 1/8" accumulation of ice.  Had it been about 29° or so, it would have accumulated a lot more…. like what the far southwest portion of Southwest Kansas experienced, where there are power outages in several towns like Johnson and Hugoton

1215 AM     ICE STORM        HUGOTON                 37.18N 101.35W  
12/20/2006                   STEVENS            KS   LAW ENFORCEMENT  
  
 TREE LIMBS AND POWERLINES ARE SNAPPING DUE TO ICE  
 ACCUMULATION. MOST OF THE CITY OF HUGOTON IS WITHOUT  
 POWER. ROADS REMAIN WET.   

0306 AM     ICE STORM        JOHNSON CITY            37.57N 101.75W  
12/20/2006                   STANTON            KS   LAW ENFORCEMENT  
  
 TREE LIMBS AND POWERLINES DOWN. POWER IS OUT IN JOHNSON.  
 PRECIPITATION CHANGED TO SNOW AT ABOUT 250 AM CST.  

SHORT TERM FORECAST  
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DODGE CITY KS  
436 AM CST WED DEC 20 2006    
CLARK-ELLIS-FINNEY-FORD-GRAY-HASKELL-
HODGEMAN-LANE-MEADE-NESS-SCOTT-SEWARD-TREGO-  

INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...ASHLAND...
CIMARRON...DIGHTON...  DODGE CITY...GARDEN CITY...
HAYS...JETMORE...LIBERAL...MEADE...  NESS CITY...
SCOTT CITY...SUBLETTE...WAKEENEY  

436 AM CST WED DEC 20 2006  
   
NOW  
  
WIDESPREAD AREAS OF MODERATE FREEZING RAIN ARE OCCURRING ACROSS A  
GOOD PORTION OF SOUTHWEST KANSAS AS OF 430 AM CST. ALL AREAS ALONG  
AND WEST OF HIGHWAY 283 AND EAST OF HIGHWAY 25 ARE BEING AFFECTED.  
SIGNIFICANT ICE ACCUMULATIONS ON TREES, POWERLINES, AND OTHER  
ELEVATED SURFACES WILL CAUSE POWER OUTAGES AND PROPERTY DAMAGE DUE TO  
FALLING TREE LIMBS. ROADS FOR THE MOST PART REMAIN WET DUE TO WARMER  
GROUND TEMPERATURES, HOWEVER REPORTS FROM AREA LAW ENFORCEMENT STATE  
THAT THERE ARE SOME SLICK SPOTS, ESPECIALLY ON SECONDARY ROADS AS  
WELL AS BRIDGES AND OVERPASSES. DRIVERS ARE URGED TO EXERCISE CAUTION  
IF YOU ARE TRAVELING ACROSS SOUTHWEST KANSAS DURING THE EARLY  
MORNING. RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF UP TO AN INCH AS WELL AS ICE  
ACCUMULATIONS OF UP TO A HALF INCH ARE POSSIBLE BEFORE THE  
PRECIPITATION CHANGES OVER TO SNOW FROM WEST TO EAST LATER ON THIS  
MORNING.  

 Well, here in Dodge City, after our morning light freezing rain shower, the temperature rose steadily throughout the morning and afternoon to the mid 30s…melting away all the ice.  As it appears now, we will see mainly plain-old cold 33° to 35°F rain.  For a winter weather weenie junkie… this is as bad as it gets!!!  The upper storm is just too strong and too far to the west…encompassing too much low level warm air… the pre-existing remnant cold airmass that was in place yesterday was just not cold enough for here in Dodge City…. but….

 Just west of here it is a mess.  Widespread freezing rain with temperatures between 28° and 31°F in areas like Liberal, Hugoton, Elkhart, Dalhart, Boise City.  The ice accumulation will be significant in these areas tonight as tremendous lifting of very rich low level moisture will really get going tonight.

Snow?  Try the Cheyenne Ridge.  Two feet expected and the Cheyenne office is going to issue a Blizzard Warning for the Cheyenne Ridge area… amazing.  So in the span of about 2 and a half weeks… I will get shafted twice!!  …once to the east (the Ozark Winter Storm of Nov 30th) and once to the north-northwest.  One foot of snow accumulation will probably get as close as east-central Colorado….  I’ll keep ya posted… it’s quite a fascinating storm.

What is interesting to note is that the actual surface temperatures are just a little bit cooler through midnight per some of the short-fuse RUC forecasts.  Below is an indication of this with a comparison of a 06z (midnight CST on 12/19) RUC surface temperature analysis compared to the 3-hour forecast valid the same time (from the 03z run).  Note the greatest discrepency over West Texas and the TX-OK Panhandles… I think this kind of interrogation is important because all it takes is only a couple degrees to turn an ordinary cold rain event into something much more significant with regards to icing in areas like Dodge City.

Below is the Area Forecast Discussion I wrote at work yesterday concerning the approaching event. 

..SIGNIFICANT ICE EXPECTED OVER PORTIONS OF SOUTHWEST KANSAS  
  
MAIN CHALLENGE IN THE FORECAST CENTERS AROUND SURFACE  
TEMPERATURES...AND DEGREE OF WARM LAYER ALOFT WITH RESPECT TO  
PRECIPITATION TYPE. THERE IS A LARGE DEGREE OF CONFIDENCE IN  
WIDESPREAD 0.75 TO 1.25 INCH TOTAL LIQUID EQUIVALENT PRECIPITATION.  
  
UPPER LOW WILL BEGIN INTERACTING WITH VERY RICH LOW LEVEL MOISTURE  
CURRENTLY RESIDING ACROSS MUCH OF TEXAS PER 295K ISENTROPIC  
ANALYSIS WITH 14-16C H85 DEWPOINTS PREVALENT. INGREDIENTS ARE  
COMING TOGETHER FOR SIGNIFICANT ICE PROBLEMS...LARGELY BECAUSE OF  
A) TREMENDOUS RESERVOIR OF MOISTURE ACROSS TEXAS...B) PROLONGED  
SOURCE OF LIFT WITH INTERACTION BETWEEN QUASI-GEOSTROPHIC FORCING AND  
MESOSCALE FRONTOGENETIC FORCING...ESSENTIALLY "TRAINING" OVER  
SOUTHWEST KANSAS FOR 12 TO 18 HOURS...C) SURFACE HIGH IN PLACE  
KEEPING COLD ENOUGH TEMPERATURES AND VERY DRY LOW LEVEL AIR AT THE  
ONSET OF THE EVENT FOR WET-BULB COOLING EFFECTS TO KEEP SURFACE  
TEMPS IN THE 28-31F RANGE.  
  
THE MOST SIGNIFICANT MODEL DISCREPANCY BETWEEN THE GFS AND THE NAM  
IS THE MAGNITUDE OF THE WARM AIR ALOFT CENTERED AROUND 750MB. THE  
NAM SUGGESTS THE ADVECTION OF +2 TO +3C AS FAR NORTHWEST AS  
JOHNSON AND SYRACUSE THROUGH MUCH OF THE EVENT. CURRENT THINKING  
NOW IS THAT AN ALL-SNOW SCENARIO LOOKS MUCH LESS LIKELY OVER EVEN  
THE NORTHWEST SECTION OF THE CWA. THINK EVEN IN HAMILTON COUNTY  
THERE WILL BE A SIGNIFICANT PERIOD OF SLEET MIXED WITH FREEZING  
RAIN...THEN BECOMING SLEET MIXED WITH SNOW. SNOW ACCUMS OF 1-3  
INCHES ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS. THE NEXT CONCERN IS THEN  
SURFACE TEMPERATURES FOR THE REST OF THE CWA...BECAUSE WITH SUCH A  
PRONOUNCED WARM LAYER ALOFT...THINK THAT ALL SNOW FALLING THROUGH WARM  
LAYER WILL COMPLETELY MELT...THUS WOULD TAKE A VERY COLD SURFACE  
LAYER TO RE-FREEZE AS SLEET...SO THE THINKING IS THAT A MAJORITY  
OF THE EVENT WILL BE FREEZING RAIN WEST OF A LINE FROM DODGE-  
NESS-WAKEENEY ALL THE WAY WEST TO LAKIN-ULYSSES-HUGOTON. MODEL QPF  
FIELDS ARE IMPRESSIVE WITH LARGE MODEL CONSISTENCY IN 1 TO 1.50  
INCH QPF. THINK THAT A LARGE PART OF THE FORECAST AREA WEST OF  
DODGE-NESS-WAKEENEY WILL SEE THREE-QUARTERS OF THE EVENT AS  
FREEZING RAIN AND CONFIDENCE IS QUITE HIGH IN THIS SCENARIO. THUS  
WILL GO WITH A WINTER STORM WARNING...PRIMARILY FOR UP TO A HALF  
INCH OR MORE OF ICE ACCUMULATION ON TREES/POWERLINES. WEST OF THE  
DOMINANT FREEZING RAIN AXIS...A NARROW CORRIDOR OF MAINLY SLEET  
FOR THE EVENT SHOULD EXIST...REALLY TOUGH TO PIN THIS DOWN OF  
COURSE AT 30-42 HOURS...HOWEVER UP TO AN INCH (OR MORE) OF SLEET  
MAY ACCUMULATE ESPECIALLY IN THE FAR WESTERN COUNTIES.  
  
COLD AIR CENTERED AROUND THE 750MB LAYER WILL EVENTUALLY FILTER  
EASTWARD BUT NOT UNTIL A BULK OF THE PRECIPITATION IS OVER  
WITH...HOWEVER THINK THAT SNOW MAY BE QUITE HEAVY FOR A BRIEF  
PERIOD OF TIME WEDNESDAY MORNING AS IT MOVES SOUTHWEST TO  
NORTHEAST ACROSS THE CWA.  
  
WEDNESDAY...AS UPPER LOW WINDS UP TO OUR NORTHWEST...DRY INTRUSION  
WILL WORK IN FAST AND THE EVENT WILL BE OVER WITH FOR SOUTHWEST  
KANSAS. WE SHOULD EVEN BREAK OUT INTO DECENT SUNSHINE IN THE  
SYNOPTIC DRY SLOT.