School doors open at the end of a blustery Tuesday as West Elementary kids (and some bundled-up grown-ups) get set to brave the cold on the short walk to their waiting curbside pick-ups. Local schools opened late Tuesday after a brief round of wintry precipitation moved through the area Monday evening and gave way to overnight low temperatures in the teens. But, say forecasters, the chilly start to the week should be our last encounter with true winter-like conditions for the foreseeable future.

Sleet and sub-freezing weather will be a distant memory as the thermometer climbs to a “balmy” high, in Phyllis’ Little’s joking words, in the mid-40s today. But for a brief two-day window, Cullman County got a rude preview of winter weather thanks to an Arctic blast that turned rain into snow, and sank nighttime temps into the teens Tuesday evening.

Thankfully, said the Cullman Emergency Management Agency director, the county came through the cold snap without any lasting damage.

“We’ve seen no reports of anything negative as a result of the cold,” said Little. “We did have one dead tree that fell onto a mobile home at Good Hope, but no one was injured and it appears to have been more a result of the high winds, which had called for 30-40 mile per-hour gusts, that came through early in the morning.”

City and county schools delayed their Tuesday start times by two hours to accommodate Monday evening’s light icing, but no schedule adjustments for Tuesday or beyond were planned by press time. The county’s designated public heating shelters, which were little used when they debuted during last year’s cold season, remained closed Tuesday evening. Little said demand for the shelters, at least so far, hasn’t materialized with the recent cold snap.

“We’ve not had any calls for it, so we have not opened any. Usually, local law enforcement will get in touch with us if they see that there’s a need, but as of now we haven’t had any calls for them to open.” she said late Tuesday. “Even when we did open them last year, we only had two people.”

Although Tuesday night’s biting cold is the last the area should see for a while as temperatures climb back into the mid-50s by this weekend, Little used the county’s first real brush with winter to stress the need for having a plan in place.

“This is winter awareness week, and I really would remind people, especially if they’re traveling in weather like this, to prepare themselves a ‘go’ bag — something that has a blanket, extra clothes, some water, and maybe a couple of granola bars — because you never know when you might get hung up in traffic or even stranded on the side of the road,” she said.

“And if you’ve got to travel any farther than a few miles from home, it’s also important to make sure your vehicle is ready for it: Check your battery and your tires, and when you’re out traveling, be aware of the conditions. If you get stranded when the weather’s like this, things that usually amount to minor inconveniences can become much more threatening, so it’s very important to be prepared.”