Poplar Bluff can expect its current drizzle to begin transitioning to ice around noon, followed by up to three inches of sleet and snow as temperatures drop overnight. Just under 0.2 inches of ice is expected in Butler County, but the Bootheel counties could see up to half an inch.
Christine Wielgos, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service Paducah, said travel would be impacted across Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky.
“No matter what area you’re in, there’s going to be major travel disruptions...It’s just not going to be a day to be out and about if at all possible,” she explained.
Cold temps will move southeastward all day, bringing the transition from rain to ice from noon to early afternoon. The Poplar Bluff area will likely receive 0.18 inches of ice, Cape Girardeau is expected to get 0.26 inches, and the Bootheel area falls into a line on the map projected to get around half an inch. These counties will likely receive less sleet and snow.
In Poplar Bluff a lull in precipitation is expected in the early evening, and dropping temperatures overnight will bring 1-3 inches of sleet and snow through Thursday. Thursday’s high is 24 degrees in the day with a low of 15 at night. It will also be breezy, with winds between 15 and 20 miles per hour and gusts up to 30, putting the wind chill near 4 degrees.
Precipitation ends Thursday night. Friday will bring sunshine, which may start the melting process, but high temperatures will hover at freezing before dipping into the single digits again that night with a wind chill of approximately two degrees.
Wielgos urged people to be prepared in the event of a power outage and know how to properly use their alternate heat sources.
“It’s very important people understand you can’t run your generator inside your house, you can’t bring your gas grill inside your house,” she warned. “Carbon monoxide is deadly and it has taken several lives over the years when it comes to winter events like this.”
General Utilities Manager Bill Bach said the power grid is designed to handle more ice than is expected to accumulate but the combination of wind and ice could still bring down some trees.
“You put trees that still have foliage on with little over a tenth of an inch of ice, we might have some isolated incidents,” he noted. “But typically...we designed for half inch of ice. So we should be good. I don’t expect any problems. But you know what, it only takes one gust to take a tree.”
Comparisons have already been made to the 2009 ice storm that two inches of ice and left some without power for a month. Wielgos assured this storm, though powerful, would not be a replay.
“(In 2009) we were sitting in cold air for so many hours, or even a day beforehand. That played a role into how easily the rain was able to accumulate on the trees and powerlines and things like that. So this is a different situation, not to negate...its impact, but we’re not looking at that type of an event at this time,” she said.
Melting is likely over the weekend. Saturday will be slightly above freezing and sunny, and Sunday is expected to bring more sun and a balmy high of 41.