There is one force of nature that can humble the human race more than any other.

The weather is a force of nature that can bring us to our knees faster than anything in this world. It’s unpredictable, it ranges from beneficial to beautiful, and the beautiful is what can be the most dangerous of all.

A good example is the snowfall we had Tuesday. A snowflake is one of the most unique and beautiful things nature produces. Most of the time, it is light as a feather and as dainty as the petal on a flower. But when you combine a lot of snowflakes and add in subfreezing temperatures, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Tuesday’s snowfall and cold weather shut the state, county and city down, forced merchants to stay home and lose money, slowed the pace of government and created dangerous road conditions with patches of ice causing multiple wrecks. That’s pretty good chaos for a bunch of small, light bits of ice that float down from the sky. In some areas of the northeast and northwest, snow is a source of recreation. In the south, it’s a pain.

And not everybody is enjoying a day off from work.

Police officers, sheriff’s deputies, firefighters and emergency medical workers are working wrecks and medical emergencies and fire calls across the county. City and county street and road crews are traveling the roads and streets trying to either remove ice from the pavement or putting down material to aid traction and prevent cars from slipping and sliding.

By the time Tuesday and Wednesday are over and the temperatures heat up, these unsung heroes will have more than earned their pay, and our undying gratitude.

We’ll have to wait until Thursday before we get relief from this latest assault by nature on our normally warm region of the country. We’ll be thankful. We’ll get outside and bask in the glory of the sun and pray that what we experienced early in the week is the last time we will have to deal with cold, snow and ice for the rest of the year.

We’ll relax and enjoy the return to our seasonal regional weather and then get caught by surprise by the next round of arctic weather, usually when winter makes its one last gasp as spring begins.