No snow, but ice is close enough // VIDEO

PANAMA CITY — It wasn’t really snow, but ice was close enough for local residents.

“It is snow,” said a surprised 6-year-old Shauntay Jackson, grabbing a handful of ice off the ground. “But, it looks like ice.”

Wrapped in winter clothing — including earmuffs and mittens, for some — area children took to their yards to explore the hard, white, icy stuff that covered the ground and yard toys. Most of the precipitation fell as freezing rain and sleet, although a few snowflakes sneaked all the way to the ground.

Shauntay, her 5-year-old sister Charity Henley, and cousins Na’khiyah, 4, and Alexzander Jones, 3, ran around their yard on Third Street in Millville, breaking icicles off bikes and scooters, scooping and making small piles of the icy mixture.

“I think they looked out their window in their room and saw the snow,” said Morgan Pellirin, 23, mother of Na’khiyah and Alexzander. “It’s really weird. It looks like sand.”

VIDEO

Sand buckets and shovels were ideal ice-snow collection tools for neighborhood kids on Berwick Circle in Lynn Haven.  

Seven-year-old Corban Cherry had spent the night before investigating the precipitation with his binoculars, which, he said, were kept near to him throughout the night to look “at the light to see if there was any snow drops.”

“I kind of saw every bit of white pieces on the ground,” Corban said. “The first thought I had in my mind is that it was snow.”

Early Wednesday morning, he and his siblings — 7-year-old Anna and 4-year-old JD Cherry — joined their friends and next door neighbors to maximize their “snow day” experience.

“If you’re up north and you have to live through a long winter, you get tired of it,” said Daniel Cherry, father of Corban, Anna and JD. “But once every 25 years isn’t so bad. It’s fun for the kids.”

The Cherry children and Jodi Rutherford’s three kids shoveled ice off the swing set, down the slide and into a bucket. Every once in a while, JD threw handfuls of it at someone — the classic thing to do with snow.

“I heard about it but never knew it was going to be this good,” Corban added.

Temperatures in the upper 20s and pockets of light rain early Wednesday turned into freezing rain — and nasty conditions for drivers, particularly those attempting to leave homes.

Springfield resident Austin Flizier, 18, couldn’t pop the hood of his 2006 yellow Dodge Charger, Daytona Edition. The car, a graduation gift he got Tuesday, was glossed in solid ice in the driveway on Flight Avenue.

“It’s been cold, but not like this,” Flizier said. “The hood was frozen, so we had to wait for the ice to melt.”

His parents, Debbie and Richard Flowers, were thrilled about the flurries.

“I was hoping it would snow today,” Debbie Richard said, noting she and her husband had been up since 4 a.m. and watched the rain turn into sleet at her home about 6 a.m.

“Back in ’89, it slushed. We had slush-snow men, but it was fun,” she added. “I liked it, but then there were a lot of wrecks.”

At about 11 a.m., two postal trucks gassed up at Shell gas station at the corner of Bob Little Road and Cherry Street. Delivery was about two hours late, said mail carrier Katherine Kelly, an area resident since 1992. Panama City-area mail is sorted in Pensacola and then returned to local post offices for delivery.

“It was late getting here from Pensacola this morning,” Kelly said. “So, when we got there [at work], we pretty much had nothing to do and now we’re leaving late and it’s sleeting again.”

She said mail truck doors kept freezing shut, despite defrosting efforts. Parker residential mailboxes also were frozen shut.

“I just delivered eight mailboxes down Bob Little,” she said. “Three of them were frozen shut; I couldn’t even open them.

“Hopefully, we’ll be back [from mail delivery] before it gets dark,” she added. “It’s going to get ugly when it gets dark.”

Wednesday’s winter storm didn’t stop 17-year-old twins and soccer players Sean and Mark Dutton from meeting up with Rutherford soccer teammate Donald Gonzalez, 17, for a two-hour offseason practice at John B. Gore Park in Callaway.

“It’s a typical off day to me,” said Mark Dutton. “This feels completely normal to be honest.”

The field didn’t appear to be slick with ice, although homes throughout the area had accumulated the wintry stuff on roofs.

It was a good day to practice, Sean Dutton added. “We play soccer in colder weather than this.”

In Mexico Beach, other than a generally slow day at City Hall, weather conditions didn’t have much of an impact, the city’s administrator said Wednesday.

“There was sleet off and on, but we have not had any accidents,” said Chris Hubbard, city administrator.

Unlike several roads throughout other parts of Bay County, streets in Mexico Beach were not slick with ice, according to Hubbard.

“Cars have ice on them,” he said. “I haven’t noticed any” snow-ice mixture build up on building structures.