More than once, she dropped by the newsroom unannounced with a tray of fresh cookies after learning that I had had to write a particularly wrenching story.

She was shy and worked at Cessna and wasn’t one to stand out from the crowd unless you noticed and appreciated kindness and warm smiles and the fact that when she asked how you were doing she really cared about your answer.

On the Sunday before Christmas 2002, we chatted on the phone about our holiday plans. She told me she had a lot of holiday baking to do before she left for Tulsa, where her parents lived. She loved to give cookies and other baked goods as presents.

I knew there was a snow storm moving into the area overnight, but her baking list left me with the impression she wouldn’t be able to leave until Christmas Eve morning on Tuesday.

But I began receiving phone calls and e-mails from other friends of Monica on Monday night asking me if it was true that she had been killed in Oklahoma. I put my reporter hat back on and learned she had driven into the snowstorm, and slid out of control on the Cimarron Turnpike and into the path of a semitrailer truck.

She was pinned in the wreckage for an hour and died later at a nearby hospital. I was sleep-deprived and numb with shock as I wrote a story about the storm the next day. The lump in my throat wouldn’t budge.

Several friends from the Wichita area went to her funeral on a crisp, sunny day after Christmas, though I was not able to join them.

Ever since then, when I hear that snow or ice is a possibility in the region, I remember Monica and don’t hesitate to mention the threat to readers. Some may snarl, some may laugh, and I know there’s no guarantee anyone will take heed.

But maybe – just maybe – some readers will be more careful after learning of the weather threat and arrive safely at their destination as a result.

In that small way, Cookie Lady can keep on giving.

A foot of snow has fallen in Washington County, and the snow is so heavy a mile of power poles has been snapped by the weight, authorities are reporting. Sabetha has received 10 inches, and numerous small towns in northeast Kansas are reporting 6 or more.

And the snow is still coming down.

“Rain could mix with or change over to snow across central and portions of south central Kansas for Sunday night and Monday. The system responsible for this wintry precipitation is showing signs of slowing down which may prolong the wintry mix through Monday night.

“It is also starting to look more favorable for some significant snow accumulation during this timeframe, mainly over central and portions of southcentral Kansas.”

Considerable uncertainty remains, however, about the track and speed of the storm system, so stay tuned.

The National Weather Service in Goodland has issued a winter weather advisory until 7 a.m. Friday for portions of Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska.

Snow and blowing snow is expected, with snowfall amounts ranging from 2 to 4 inches. North winds of 20 to 30 miles an hour will cause blowing and drifting snow, with reduced visibilities.

Kansas counties included in the advisory are Cheyenne, Sherman and Rawlins. Among the cities included are Goodland, Atwood and St. Francis.

The storm system had dumped nearly 44 inches of snow in the foothills of the Rockies northwest of Denver, from 15 to 25 inches on the urban corridor along the front range and 8 to 15 inches in eastern Colorado.

I-70 is currently closed between Burlington and Denver.

More than 5 inches of snow fell northwest of Atwood, and 4 fell near St. Francis. Only the far corner of the state accumulated snow from the storm, but there are whispers of more snow coming to Kansas late next week.

Stay tuned.

A winter storm watch has been issued for eight counties in northwest Kansas from 4 p.m. today until 6 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time Thursday. Among the cities affected by the watch are Colby, Goodland, Oakley, Oberlin and St. Francis.

Much of the northwest corner of the state can expect at least 3 inches of snow from this storm, forecasters say. North winds of 15 to 25 miles an hour, with gusts still higher, may significantly reduce visibility.

But even if it snowed this week in Wichita, that wouldn’t come near the record for earliest measurable snowfall in the city. That distinction goes to Sept. 26, 1942, when a trace fell.

Leave it to Wichita to laugh at the concept of “average.” Two years after setting a record for earliest snowfall, the city set a new record for latest freeze: late November.

The answer is “no.”

In fact, AccuWeather predicts that the Eastern Seaboard will be hit particularly hard this winter – a distinct contrast from the Farmers Almanac’s projection that a “cold sandwich” will dominate the season, with the coasts being spared the harsher conditions between the Rockies and the Appalachians.

Interesting. We’ll find out who’s right soon enough….

The venerable publication’s 2010 edition, which went on sale Tuesday, predicts numbing cold for the country’s midsection, from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians. Here’s a map of the winter forecast, which I pulled from the Farmer’s Almanac Web site.

“We feel the middle part of the country’s really going to be cold — very, very cold, very, very frigid, with a lot of snow,” Managing Editor Sandi Duncan told the Associated Press. “On the East and West coasts, it’s going to be a little milder. Not to say it’s going to be a mild short winter, but it’ll be milder compared to the middle of the country.”

The almanac, which has been published since 1818, issues annual forecasts using a formula based on sunspots, planetary positions and the effects of the moon.

This winter will be cool and snowy in the Northeast, bitterly cold and dry in the Great Lakes states, and cold and snowy across the North Central states. The almanac predicts the Northwest will be cool with average precipitation, the Southwest will be mild and dry, the South Central states will be cold and wet, and the Southeast will be mild and dry.

How have past predictions by the almanac borne out? Judge for yourself.

Reed had to have the transmission on his Ford Explorer replaced after he got stuck in the mud in Pawnee County, Neb., and is scrambling south toward Wichita early this afternoon.