So Close…Again

I took this outside of Hilbun on MSU's campus today.

Many disappointed snow fanatics could be found today. The Golden Triangle had to settle for less than one inch of snow today, while locations in our neighboring counties of Winston and Noxubee received 2-3 inches. The heavier snow did indeed stay to our south, as some towns south of I-20 saw accumulations upwards of 5 inches.

If you saw a radar anytime from late last night and into this morning, it did appear that snow was falling over the entire southern half of Mississippi. And, in fact, it was snowing aloft for areas along and north of Hwy 82. Why was it not reaching the ground, you ask? A nice dry slot of air made its way into our area, and this caused the snow to evaporate before reaching the surface.

Come about 9:30 this morning, though, light snow did begin to fall here in Starkville, while surrounding areas saw snowfall earlier than that. Temperatures mid-afternoon hung around the freezing mark and slowly warmed up to about 40 degrees for today’s max. As you probably noticed, this accounted for no snow accumulation on the roads today…merely a light coating on leaves, grass, and my sweatshirt.

Golden Triangle Airport is reporting clear skies right now (and I have confirmed that by looking at satellite imagery!). Skies will stay mostly clear overnight tonight and into the morning. This will allow us to cool down quite nicely tonight with temperatures making their way to the mid 20s.

Cloud cover won’t be a huge deal tomorrow, either, as we will get to experience partly cloudy skies. Contrasting from frigid morning lows, daytime highs tomorrow, Saturday, will find their way to the mid 40s. Clouds will build in tomorrow evening eventually becoming pretty thick and widespread. I am a bit timid to use the word “overcast” for early Sunday morning, as we l see some sunshine before noon.

But as a cold front moves in from our west, rain chances do increase in the PM hours come Sunday. (Yes, this means the second half of Valentine’s Day may be slightly wet.) Temperatures will again be in the mid 40s, so we will be dealing with a chilly drizzle/rain. Chances of rain linger through Monday morning, and since overnight temperatures will be be below freezing, there is a slight chance of snow flurries. No accumulation is expected.

We will see some nice cloud cloud cover on Monday, and with cold air moving in from Canada, highs will unfortunately be around the 40 degree mark. Some areas will struggle to get out of the thirties. The good news is that rain doesn’t crawl into my forecast again until late next week, so as of now, we will get to stay dry throughout the work week. Come Thursday, we may see temperatures get back up to 50 degrees.