Freezing Weather Continues To Grip Oklahoma

Thursday, February 1st 2007, 8:50 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A winter storm system that has resulted in at least four deaths continued to hold Oklahoma in its grip Thursday as forecasters warned that brutally cold conditions soon would move into the state.

Hazardous driving conditions in the state -- the result of freezing drizzle on Wednesday that coated roads with thin patches of ice and below-freezing temperatures on Thursday -- continued to lead to dozens of accidents.

The storm claimed another victim early Thursday, when an emergency medical technician died from injuries she suffered hours earlier when the ambulance in which she was riding ran off a Latimer County road. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Janez Case, 51, of Clayton, was pronounced dead Thursday at Sparks Hospital in Fort Smith, Ark.

Case was riding in the back of an ambulance with a patient about 8 p.m. Wednesday when the vehicle slid off the roadway and overturned. The 16-year-old patient and the 49-year-old driver of the ambulance were in stable condition at an area hospital, the OHP said.

Snow that fell overnight in much of the state continued through Thursday afternoon and road conditions remained dangerous, OHP Trooper Alan Beaty said.

"I don't see them getting any better," Beaty said. "Crews are doing a great job out there but you can't keep up with it."

Norman-based National Weather Service meteorologist Ty Judd said that less than an inch of snow is expected Thursday from the storm system. That same system is forecast to bring a mix of winter precipitation to parts of southeastern Oklahoma during the afternoon, he said.

Another system is expected to enter northern Oklahoma by early Friday and will push south through the state, bringing much colder temperatures and a chance of one to three inches of snow in the western half of Oklahoma, Judd said.

Highs for the next several days will be in the 20s for much of the state, he said, and a strong north wind will make it feel even colder.

"It's just not going to feel like a good day (Friday)," he said. "We're just in a cold pattern. We just have to accept that."

The weather service issued a snow advisory for 41 counties in western, central and southern Oklahoma, effective from 9 p.m. CST Thursday through noon Friday.