Residents in Poplar Bluff and other Southeast Missouri communities woke Wednesday to another round of snow, the second this week, with about 3 inches falling before 8 a.m.
This fell on top of snowfall of between five and 12 inches that fell across the region starting on Valentine’s Day.
“You’ve had most of your accumulating snow already,” said a representative from the National Weather Service on Paducah, Kentucky, around 8 a.m. Wednesday. “You could see another half-inch, but it looks like on radar you’re right on the tail end of it.”
The potential for additional accumulations of snow later Wednesday, she said, was minimal.
“There might be some light accumulations still, so we’ll have to keep an eye on it to make sure nothing else develops to the southwest,” the representative said. “Anything else is going to be flurry-ish or maybe a tenth of an inch, but nothing big.”
Much of the area, including Ripley, Carter, Butler, Wayne and Stoddard counties remained in a winter weather advisory until mid-day Wednesday.
Poplar Bluff Street Department crews, Superintendent Jerry Lawson said, began plowing the city’s yet again streets around 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Like they did Monday, crews began plowing priority areas first, such as around fire stations, the police station and nursing homes.
Other priority areas included high-traffic roadways like Oak Grove Road, Barron Road, Main Street and Shelby Road.
“They are hammering down, all 26 of them. They’re going as fast as they can go,” said Butler County Highway Superintendent Robbie Moore of his crews Wednesday morning.
Moore said his department began plowing roads again early Wednesday as soon as the snow began, focusing on the county’s gravel roads first.
“We had a lot of drifts down south, and we’re trying to get those knocked out so people can at least get through them if they need to get out,” Moore said.
Crews would switch to asphalt roads once the snow stops, Moore said.
“We’ll probably work late into the night (Wednesday) making sure we’ve got all our asphalt roads completely cleared, and on Thursday we’ll go back to our gravels again,” Moore said.
“Hopefully this is the last go-around. I’m over it and ready for spring,” Moore added.
By 8 a.m. Wednesday, Troop E of the Missouri State Highway Patrol had responded to 16 calls for service, 11 stranded motorists and a single crash across its expansive region.
“It’s been the same thing for several days … wash, rinse, repeat,” said MSHP Sgt. Clark Parrott. “If you don’t have to be out, don’t, but if you have to go out, reduce your speed, make sure you have plenty of fuel and make sure your car is roadworthy.”
Troopers worked multiple slide-offs Wednesday morning, Parrott said, with poor road conditions across the region.
“The highways are still mostly covered,” Parrott said. “MoDOT has one lane open going each direction, but even then, it is partially covered.”
That snow, Parrott said, was not melting Wednesday as it had under Tuesday’s sun.
Temperatures across the region were expected to moderate after several days of bitter cold morning lows and afternoons reaching only into the mid-teens.
The National Weather Service was expecting 29 degrees with cloudy skies Thursday and 29 again Friday, but with sunny skies.
“Saturday we’re going to get a little above freezing, but of course whenever you have snow on the ground, it’s real hard for that temperature to go up,” a NWS representative said. “Sunday, we have a better shot of going above freezing with southwest winds.”
Daytime highs are expected to reach into the lower 50s by the middle of next week, she said.