Cold - and getting colder

Freezing drizzle overnight and blowing snow this morning made it easy to spot co-workers who don't have garages at home.

The cold, misty drizzle Sunday night cemented itself onto windshields, bridges and sidewalks.

So the folks who arrived at work with an especially irritated look not only had to negotiate slick streets and poor visibility, they probably spent their morning with ice scraper in hand.

It's going to get better, forecasters say, but not immediately.

Metro area residents can expect to remain in the grip of bitter cold — below-zero lows and single-digit highs — through Tuesday.

By Wednesday, a warming trend should arrive.

Daytime highs through Friday are expected to reach the mid-20s to mid-30s, according to AccuWeather Inc., The World-Herald's private weather consultant, and the National Weather Service.

Dave Eastlack, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Valley, said this latest bout of ice and snow is a dose of reality.

“This is just ‘welcome to winter,'” Eastlack said. “We just haven't had it in a while, so it probably seems unusual for people.”

The good news was that this latest bout of morning rush-hour winter weather appears to have produced only fender-benders, although they were numerous.

Omaha police, Sarpy County officials and the Nebraska State Patrol had no reports of serious-injury accidents as of midday.

Minor accidents were plentiful, and Omaha police stopped responding to noninjury crashes, requesting that drivers simply exchange information.

State Patrol dispatcher Barb Klinetobe was counting blessings.

“We've been pretty lucky. It was really, really slow on the Interstate this morning, and we've had a few cars spin out,” she said.

Emergency communications indicated that roads were more treacherous outside the metro area.

In Iowa, a truck and car collided near Dow City on Highway 30, which was reported to be 100-percent ice covered. No information on possible injuries was immediately available.

Elementary students in Underwood, Iowa, were evacuated into the cold about 11:30 a.m. when the school's fire alarm sounded. They were back inside quickly after firefighters found that burned-out light fixture caused the alarm, officials said.

Not everyone was miserable.

A small group was out in the cold, preparing a neighborhood ice rink.

Near the corner of Happy Hollow and Underwood, Ryan Basye of Dundee Bank was leading a team of volunteers filling the Dundee community ice rink.

“It's a big, cold swimming pool right now,” he said.

Cold weather is expected to return by the weekend, along with a slight chance of snow. It might be a little discouraging to hear, but it's that time of year, Eastlack said.

“This is normal, this is December,” Eastlack said. “Expect it.”

World-Herald staff writers John Keenan and Stacie Hamel contributed to this report.

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