It’s only the first week of the year, but already I’m looking forward to warmer temperatures.

The snow that came through a few weeks ago was nice and gave us a respite from our normal weather, but this week of constant below freezing temperatures is too much for me.

According to the National Weather Service in Jackson, we can expect a hard freeze all the way through the weekend with low temperatures dipping down into the teens and the highs not reaching above freezing.

That’s not my kind of “southern” weather.

I know some folks enjoy this cold weather, especially hunters, but as my bones have gotten older, I can live without this kind of cold weather.

There are several reasons why I don’t enjoy this cold weather. I don’t enjoy driving on roads that could be covered in ice or lose power when ice accumulates on power lines or in trees that lose limbs and take out the power.

I’ve been in an ice storm and it isn’t any fun.

During my senior year at Delta State University, there was one of the worst ice storms to ever hit the Delta. I remember it was nearly impossible to get to class by foot and not possible at all by vehicle. The beautiful oak trees on the quad took a beating from the ice and several were destroyed.

The storm lasted for several days and power was out for at least a week.

It was a mess that I don’t want to go through again.

I was fortunate to spend most of my first 14 years in northern California where ice storms are as rare as a tornado. The climate rarely changed, but we did have the occasional snow that would dust the area for a day – just enough to play in and rarely stuck to the ground. Winter-like weather was very rare in the Bay Area.

It took me a couple summers to adjust to humid Southern weather when my family moved to Mississippi, but now there’s no other place I’d want to live.

The reason I choose to live in the South is because of the climate. I actually don’t mind too much the humidity we deal with during a majority of the year. If it gets too warm, I just turn up the air conditioner and enjoy the indoors for a while.

I’ve heard horror stories from more than one person about navigating frozen roads on some of the hilly areas of Vicksburg and Warren County. That is something I don’t want to have to deal with.

Hopefully the roads will stay clear and we will just have to deal with some abnormally freezing temperatures this week. But please be safe out there.

In the meantime, I’m going to start counting the days until those humid temperatures return and we are out of the deep freeze.

Rob Sigler is editor of The Vicksburg Post. You may reach him at rob.sigler@vicksburgpost.com.