It’s Cold Outside — By Tommy Purser

By the time most readers get this week’s Ledger, the two weather alerts we received Tuesday afternoon from the Jeff Davis County Emergency Management Agency will have expired.
The first we received alerted citizens of a wind chill advisory that was in effect from midnight Tuesday to 10 a.m. Wednesday.
“Very cold wind chills expected. Wind chills as low as 15 degrees,” the advisory warned.
It continued, “The cold wind chills could result in hypothermia if precautions are not taken. Use caution while traveling outside. Wear appropriate clothing, a hat and gloves.”
The second alerted citizens to a freeze warning over generally the same time period.
Sub-freezing temperatures as low as 24 were expected.
It read: “Frost and freeze conditions will kill crops, other sensitive vegetation and possibly damage unprotected outdoor plumbing. Take steps now to protect tender plants from the cold. To prevent freezing and possible bursting of outdoor water pipes they should
be wrapped, drained, or allowed to drip slowly. Those that have in-ground sprinkler systems should drain them and cover above-ground pipes to protect them from freezing.
For those of us over 40 years old, such warnings came on a regular basis years ago.
I remember during high school football season, even here in south Georgia, there were always at least two or three games played in uncomfortably cold weather. Once a season, it seemed, a game would be played in brutally cold conditions, to include playing on frozen ground.
At the peach orchard in which I worked during my early teens in Waynesboro, the orchard owners came a huge inventory of vehicle tires on site. And when the wind was expected to reach freezing, workers would spread the tires out among the rows of peach trees and set them on fire to keep the fragile fruit from behind killed by the cold.
Of course, there was no Environmental Protection Agency back then to protect nearby residents from the harm the burning rubber caused them each winter.