Review of the Big Snow Event

Don’t forget to look at the pictures below the post!!!

It has almost been two weeks since our impressive snowfall on January 9th and 10th.  As soon as I saw the first snowflakes fall in Starkville Sunday afternoon, I grabbed my camera and recorded some video and pictures and sent that to The Weather Channel.  I followed the event the whole day on radar, skycams, and TV stations that were covering it.  Towards the end of the night, I was definitely wishing I was back home in Pontotoc.

A relatively warm layer aloft helped a lot of the snowfall to fall to the ground as sleet in Starkville.  Compared to snow, sleet is very dense, so it was just too hard for us in Starkville to get significant snowfall out after that.  It used up a lot of our resources for snow, I guess you could say.  Many forecasts were originally for Central Mississippi to receive 4-8 inches of snow, but the average was about 3 inches.

Snow was plentiful far to the north, though.  I became a little annoyed when I saw Starkville was drying out and my hometown was going to be experiencing heavy snow for the next hour or so.  Then I regretted not going home for the weekend!  I couldn’t stand not being with my family during such a big event, so I ended up driving back to Pontotoc the next morning (Monday).  In hindsight, I should have taken a must different route.  I was one of the first to travel the snow covered roads between Okolona and Pontotoc, so I had to blaze my own trail–often driving in the middle of the road or even on the left side.  (Don’t worry, I passed a total of two cars on the drive.)  Normally, that stretch takes me about 25 minutes.  It took me close to 40 that day!

I did make it home in good condition, though, and Mom, Amy, and I walked to my grandparents’ house (less than a mile away) for homemade soup!  We enjoyed being outside the rest of the day and got a chance to build snowmen representing Mississippi State and Ole Miss–mine and my sister’s schools.  They were actually featured in the Pontotoc Progress and on The Daily Journal’s website.  When I left home this past Tuesday morning, the 18th, there was still some snow left, but it’s probably depleted by now as afternoon highs this week have been in the 40s.

There is a chance for some wintry precipitation at the beginning of the next week, but I will have a webcast on that later today!