Welcome back my friends to the snow that never ends
We’re so glad you could attend, stay inside, stay inside
There behind a glass stands a real blade of grass
Be careful as you pass, move along, move along

With apologies to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, the passage above is borrowed — with some modification — from their classic song Karn Evil 9 and the lyrics seem appropriate by substituting the word “snow” for “show” and changing the lyrics “come inside, come inside” to “stay inside, stay inside.”

The weather forecast today called for temperatures in the mid 30s.  Never got close.  The thermometer stood at 31 early Saturday morning and went down, not up, as the day progressed.

Surprisingly, the wind did not bring a rash of power outages.  Appalachian Power Company reported no outages as of 6:30 p.m. and the National Weather Service pulled the wind warming at 6 p.m.

Delegate Nick Rush reports a number of emails and phone calls from area residents upset over the lack fo snow clearance by the Virginia Department of Transportation and promises “help is on the way.”

The effects of cutbacks in VDOT were felt throughout the region Saturday as many area residents still found themselves snowed in.

Temperatures are forecast to drop to around 19 Saturday night and then climb into the lower 40s on Sunday which, with sun, should start melting the more than 20 inches of snow that blanketed Floyd and surrounding counties on Wednesday and Thursday.

With Monday the President’s Day federal holiday, some will have an extra day to dig out.

Aiding by gusting winds, the low temperatures made sure that the snow on the ground wouldn’t melt and ice formed from Friday’s melting and overnight freezing made shoveling and removal difficult.

Added to the misery for Floyd County residents were roads that still need plowing and snowdrifts up to five feet.