{"id":29516,"date":"2026-01-22T11:28:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T17:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/?p=29516"},"modified":"2026-01-22T11:28:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T17:28:56","slug":"ice-storm-of-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/22\/ice-storm-of-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Ice Storm of &#8217;26?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is not the post I intended to publish today.<\/p>\n<p>But we&#8217;re less than 48 hours away now from the predicted arrival of a major winter storm. The chances of this thing being &#8220;just a big nothingburger&#8221; are rapidly diminishing.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the forecast looks eerily similar to the forecast a day or two before the famous Memphis ice storm of &#8217;94.<\/p>\n<p>Not yet a Downtowner, I was living in The Gilmore at Madison and McLean. I was a credit hour from wrapping up my master&#8217;s degree at the U of M, and I was working there in a full-time computer support role.<\/p>\n<p>I tried to come to work the morning the &#8217;94 ice storm hit. But my &#8217;79 Mustang hatchback wouldn&#8217;t move a foot in any direction on the Gilmore&#8217;s parking lot. A neighbor gave me kitty litter to put under the tires. It didn&#8217;t help.<\/p>\n<p>I went back inside and called into work, then turned on the TV. Trees and power lines were down all over the city. Linden Avenue between Barksdale and Cooper looked like a war zone.<\/p>\n<p>Some neighborhoods went 10 days or longer before the power was restored.<\/p>\n<p>My point in telling you this is, don&#8217;t take the threat of an ice storm lightly.<\/p>\n<p>No, I don&#8217;t think Downtown &#8217;26 will resemble Linden Avenue &#8217;94. There are not as many trees Downtown, and the power lines are underground. But I&#8217;d recommend avoiding driving at all costs. If you walk, wear shoes with good traction and remember, there could be a half-inch of solid ice under those several inches of snow.<\/p>\n<p>Back tomorrow with more news.<\/p>\n<p><span data-tt=\"{&quot;paragraphStyle&quot;:{&quot;alignment&quot;:4,&quot;writingDirection&quot;:1}}\"><em><strong>I gratefully accept tips:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<\/span>Venmo:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/account.venmo.com\/u\/Paul-Ryburn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">@Paul-Ryburn<\/a>\u00a0(8113 if it asks for digits)<br \/>\nCash App: $PaulRyburn1<br \/>\nZelle: paul@paulryburn.com<br \/>\nApple Pay: paul.ryburn@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is not the post I intended to publish today. But we&#8217;re less than 48 hours away now from the predicted arrival of a major winter storm. The chances of this thing being &#8220;just a big nothingburger&#8221; are rapidly diminishing. In fact, the forecast looks eerily similar to the forecast a day or two before &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/22\/ice-storm-of-26\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Ice Storm of &#8217;26?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29516"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29516"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29518,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29516\/revisions\/29518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. The path to wp-cache-phase1.php in wp-content/advanced-cache.php must be fixed! -->