A winter storm continues to pile snow and ice on Missouri, causing the transportation department to advise against travel and some public agencies to shut down.
Heavy snowfall obscures the view of the Missouri River and the bridge across it from the State Capitol Building in Jefferson City.
National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Bowman in Kansas City says it’s not done yet.
“It looks like it will taper off from about southwest to northeast … by about sunrise tomorrow stuff should be pretty much wound down,” says Bowman. “We may see some blowing of snow as the winds pick up. It won’t be precipitating. We’ll just have blowing snow across the ground. As we move into the afternoon tomorrow it looks like everything will be gone out of the state.”
The Bootheel region of Missouri has received some freezing rain and sleet mixed in with the snow. Warning Coordination Meteorologist Rick Shanklin in Paducah, Kentucky, says a quarter-inch of ice accumulation had been reported by 4:00 p.m. in the areas of Grandin and Dexter.
“We think freezing rain will continue at least into the early evening hours, especially as you approach the Mississippi River area,” says Shanklin, but he says in southeast Missouri the precipitation should be ending earlier than in the rest of the state. “We do see a pretty rapid end … by mid- to late evening.”
The area expected to receive the greatest snowfall totals is in western through central Missouri, including Kansas City, Chillicothe, Columbia, Sedalia and Butler. Bowman says in those regions 8 to 10 inches of snow has been predicted.