The ever-changing weather forecast has improved for Southwest Mississippi ahead of the arrival of a winter storm that will bring plunging temperatures, bone-chilling wind and snow early Tuesday. Officials urged people to prepare for its arrival and be cautious once it gets here.
Forecasters are predicting 2-3 inches of snow in Southwest Mississippi, while areas further south in Southeastern Louisiana are expected to get 4-6 inches.
“You may end up with less snow than what we were originally forecasting,” National Weather Service meteorologist Danielle Manning said of Southwest Mississippi’s likely impacts during a Monday morning briefing.
The good news is that no ice accumulation is expected, which should help with road conditions, and it’s going to be so windy that it should keep snow from accumulating on power lines, which should help with power outages, Manning said.
“Basically we went from worst-case scenario to best-case scenario,” Pike County Civil Defense Director Tina Reed said.
Manning said that while there’s still a high chance of snowfall in Southeastern Louisiana and South Mississippi, the possibility of ice has decreased.
Still, travel is expected to be affected by the weather, Manning said.
“There’s no reason to chance anything tomorrow. Tuesday’s going to be horrible,” Reed said.
Schools in Pike County announced closures for Tuesday, but most were waiting to see the effects of the weather before making a decision about Wednesday.
The Mississippi Department of Transportation and county road crews have been preparing for the weather by spreading salt on some roadways and sand and slag on bridges.
Travel risks are likely to stretch into Wednesday and Thursday.
Some places will have 36 consecutive hours of below-freezing temperatures, which means anything that thaws is likely to refreeze, causing slick road conditions.
Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be the coldest days, and temperatures are not expected to rise above freezing for very long. Wednesday morning will be the coldest, with temperatures in the teens and 20s and single-digit wind chills.
A hard freeze will continue into Thursday and Friday mornings.
“Wednesday and Thursday we’re not looking at new snow, but lingering snow will not have had a chance to melt,” Manning said
And because it’s going to be so cold leading up to the snow, the ground will be primed for snow accumulation, she said.
Bridges and overpasses will quickly become hazardous.
Some forecasts originally predicted a walloping of snowfall elsewhere, with some places in southern Mississippi receiving as much as 10 inches and Baton Rouge receiving up to a foot, but forecasters said that is growing increasingly unlikely.
Manning said it’s fortunate that the threat of ice accumulation has all but gone away.
“We really don’t have that in the forecast anywhere,” she said, adding that coastal Louisiana is the only place in the region where ice remains a threat.
The snow is expected to arrive in Southwest Mississippi from 3-7 a.m. Tuesday, with the heaviest snowfall occurring from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Minimum wind chills for Southwest Mississippi were expected to be around 9 or 10 degrees.
“This is going to be really dangerous cold temperatures,” Manning said.
And while the snow is expected to be a one-day event, it could linger throughout the week as below-freezing low temperatures and wind chills in the 20s are forecast through Saturday
