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Photo by Andy Atkinson Danielle Thurnbauer, 6, climbs back to the top of the hill with her sled on her back as her older brother, Russell, 8, slides down in Donahue-Frohnmayer Park in east Medford. The Medford kids spent Sunday afternoon enjoying the snow that fell Saturday night and Sunday morning. Some welcome winter Police advise: Start early and drive real slow By BETH QUINN Stay home. Or at least slow down. That's the advice police across the Rogue Valley have for residents facing treacherous driving conditions following an overnight low expected to reach a teeth-chattering 6 degrees early this morning. "Start out early. Drive real slow. Watch out for the other guy, watch your following distances, and watch your speed," said Oregon State Police Dispatch Supervisor Robert Fuller. Police officers throughout the region faced a rash of motor vehicle accidents after an Arctic blast delivered a snowstorm late Saturday, dusting the region with up to four inches of snow. Medford police took their first weather-related call at 8:06 p.m. Saturday. Within an hour, complaints were received of a motorist chaining up on Barnett Road and another pulling kids on a sled along West Ninth Street. By mid-afternoon Sunday Medford police had handled 37 road calls, including 21 minor motor vehicle accidents. Over in Ashland, mountainside streets remained snow-covered on Sunday afternoon because the city's four plows could not negotiate the steep and slippery terrain. "The best advice is to stay home. Unless it's an emergency, stay home," advised an Ashland police dispatcher. Not enough people heeded that advice to spare Oregon State Police a day of nonstop accidents that littered Interstate 5 with icy snarls from Cottage Grove to the Rogue Valley. "Nothing serious, fortunately, just one thing after another, but we haven't taken anybody to the morgue," Fuller said Sunday evening. While some kids armed with sleds, inner tubes and anything slidable took aim at the nearest hillside, others wondered about the chances of Santa's sleigh setting down on a white Christmas come Friday. "It's a possibility," said Chuck Glaser, meteorological technician at the National Weather Service at Medford airport. Although weather watchers expect a gradual warming trend by the end of the week -- into the 30s -- the extended forecast does call for possible snow showers on Christmas Day. The white stuff may also be on hand for the official start of winter at 5:56 p.m. today, with a 30 percent chance of snow on a day expected to warm only to 24 degrees. Neither the day's expected high or low will be cold enough for the record books. The record of minus 4 was set on Dec. 21, 1990. The good news for the young at heart enduring the current deep freeze may come in knowing that the Rogue Valley's weather comes straight from Santa. "It's coming right down from the Arctic. It's cold air that coming straight out of the north," said Glaser. And even if the temperature warms up a bit before Christmas Day, the air flow's direction should remain the same, bringing fair and favorable winds for any jolly old elves who might be heading this way. And 1998 may turn out to be one of those rare years when southern Oregon's holiday merrymakers enjoy a white Christmas. "The possibility is there," Glaser said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA