As you read this, you may be looking at a “winter wonderland” as those in climates accustomed to this wintry weather might call it.

We aren’t accustomed to it here, and in small doses, we enjoy it. What we were forecast to receive over the next two to three days — that includes today, if you got your paper on Tuesday — is no small dose. The weather forecast called for snow and ice accumulations of two to four inches.

Father Jon Filkins of the Anglican Church was at a meeting at City Hall on Tuesday and said he was from Chicago where icy weather this time of year is normal. However, he said even Chicago shuts down if the area gets too much snow and ice coming in off Lake Michigan. My son went through Navy boot camp in the winter at Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois, which is very near Chicago and he never wants to go back there, at least in the winter.

The message the emergency managers at Picayune City Hall wants to get out to everyone here is that you should stay off the roads if you don’t need to be on them.

If you have to go out, try to avoid bridges and any elevated roads because they are the first to freeze and are very dangerous when iced over. I don’t know how it’s possible to avoid bridges if you have to go very far down here, but that’s what they said.

They also said that if you have a heat pump, you might want to put it on emergency heat because a heat pump can’t pump what isn’t available — heat — if we got the weather that was forecast.

Please take care and stay home, stay safe and stay warm. It ain’t hurricane season, but treat this weather as if it is a “winter hurricane.”