Snowy Situation

If you live almost anywhere in Northern Mississippi, you woke up to snow blanketing the ground. This was thanks to one of the biggest Winter storms we've seen in MS since the Winter of 1989!

Some of you may be asking yourselves, "Why didn't we get as much snow as was being forecasted?" The answer is a bit complicated. In places like Starkville, forecasters were originally thinking upwards of 4-8'' of snow- here at MSU, we only got 3''. This is because a relatively warm layer of air just above the surface caused most of the snow that was falling (towards the end of the night) to melt into sleet pellets- and sleet does not accumulate as well as snow. However, I'm not complaining! Here are a few images of the snow from 21 Apartments: 

Down in central MS, along the I-20 corridor, you guys saw a pretty impressive accumulation of ice! In fact, the flyover at the I-220/I-55 junction was closed because it was solid ice. Outer lying area roads which are not as well-maintained were hit even harder. In Scott and Leake County, numerous accidents were reported. Other accidents, some with injuries were reported in Vicksburg, which also had many power outages, as well as in Meridian- and it only got worse eastward into Alabama.

I know many of you in central MS were disappointed that you didn't see any accumulations of snow, but  this was a very complex and complicated storm system which was challenging to forecast for even the most experienced meteorologists. 

The deformation band, which I talked about in my last post, formed a little more northward than what I was thinking, but nonetheless, it dumped double-digit snow totals in places like Tippah County, which reportedly received 10 inches! Other areas like Oxford saw 5'', Starkville, 3'', and Cleveland, 4-5''.

**Travel Notice** While the brunt of the storm has pushed well to our East, there is still plenty of snow on the ground. Temps today in N MS did not get out of the 30s, so melting was a struggle. Tonight, temps will plummet down into the 20s, so any runoff will refreeze on roads and bridges, so travel, especially early in the morning and on secondary/access roads will remain difficult and dangerous- so please be mindful of that.

**The week ahead: Unlike in previous weeks, temps will not quickly rebound this week. Highs will remain frigidly cold- in the 30s- Wed., we may not get above freezing- and lows will bottom out in the mid to upper teens! Ouch!