Life and Wildlife along the Little Buffalo River

I woke up to 27F this morning; it is about 34F at 11:15 AM. The warmup is slow because of the melting ice. Here in Murray Valley we got about 1/2″ of ice but it warmed to 32F by 4:00 PM yesterday preventing more power outages, through melting. The ice did melt until midnight with temperatures at 33F. Also, we never got the strong winds forecast and that really helped us out. I am sure different parts of the High Ozarks got more; I know that the Mullbery River drainage got 4-5 inches of snow and and some ice too. The ice melting has created run off  and has added water to the streams and creeks today; which is good. I do not know how much actual precipitation we got here in Murray Valley because my electronic gauge does not  measure frozen precipitation; when the rain was heaviest, I registered 0.00 inches of rain. I would guess we got at least 0.75 inches. This morning the highest ice totals were at the high elevations. All roads around Parthenon and Jasper were pretty good; except in shady locations were the ice holds on.

I went to Jasper this morning to pick up some odds and ends at the hardware store; and, I took a few pictures along the way: