Downtown Jefferson City seemed like a ghost town Friday as winter storm Jupiter made its way through Mid-Missouri.
"With businesses closing and schools and government offices closed, we had very little traffic on the roads and that led to very few problems," Cole County/Jefferson City Emergency Management Director Bill Farr said.
During a news conference Friday evening, Gov. Eric Greitens urged Missourians to continue to stay home as the storm system affected the Interstate 44 corridor from Lebanon to St. Louis on Friday and was predicted to leave its mark on Central Missouri today. He said by staying home, residents were allowing road crews and first responders to get to outages and other emergencies quicker.
Weather officials said the storm started much like they thought it would and would probably leave the quarter-inch to half-inch amount of ice they had predicted.
"We're still looking at one-fourth to half-an-inch of ice for Mid-Missouri," said meteorologist Melissa Byrd with the National Weather Service in St. Louis. "The forecast calls for the light freezing rain to continue, letting up some during the day Saturday but picking up again Saturday evening and into Sunday."
Byrd said the temperatures are expected to start to rise by Sunday afternoon and be well above freezing by Monday so anything that does fall from the skies is rain.
"The one good thing to report now is the winds are staying light," she said. "That should help keep trees and power lines up longer."
The Jefferson City Memorial Airport did close its two runways Friday, but the airport remained open for helicopter traffic and the control tower was open.
"We did do pretreatment on the runways," airport manager Ron Craft said. "But when we tested their conditions with vehicles, we were finding it hard to stop and control. So in the interest of safety, we decided to close them."
MoDOT officials said the winter weather had no impact on Amtrak passenger train service, and the trains ran on time Friday.
The Columbia Regional Airport was able to get flights in from Chicago and Dallas during the day Friday, but flights scheduled to come in from those cities at night were cancelled. As of Friday evening, the status of flights from those two cities into Columbia remained as scheduled for today, but airport officials urged passengers to frequently check in to make sure of the status of their flights.
Emergency responders around Mid-Missouri reported few problems through the day Friday, but they had personnel in place to head out in case of emergencies. Russellville-Lohman Fire Protection Chief Chris Cinotto said they had a couple of firefighters staying at their station in Russellville for easy response to any calls. Lohman and Enon fire trucks remained in those areas for protection and safety of their members.
Officials at St. Mary's Hospital and Capital Region Medical Center said their emergency departments had not noticed an increase in slips or falls Friday. Staffs were brought to the hospital to stay overnight to ensure continuing care for patients.
As of Friday evening, outage maps for both Ameren Missouri and Three Rivers Electric Cooperative showed no power outages in Mid-Missouri. Both companies said they would keep crews and equipment on standby so they could move out quickly when they did need to deal with any potential outages.
Local road crews reported few problems during the day Friday. In California, the five members of the city's street department spread salt where needed, but due to people staying off the streets, things remained calm.
"There were patches of ice during the day that we had to deal with, but we mostly had crews out monitoring conditions," said Cole County Public Works Director Larry Benz. "We got salt down on the roads before the ice started. Friday night and Saturday night is when we're most concerned because of temperatures dropping and ice still forecast to come down. We send the main crews home at 8 p.m., and they're scheduled to start at 4 a.m."
"I'm not sure when we've ever done this, but for this storm, we put sand down with the salt," Jefferson City Operations Division Director Britt Smith said. "It's something we don't typically do. It helps the salt go further, and the sand gives grit which helps give a little better grip on tires. It has paid off. The forecast allowed us to plan well ahead so we were in the wheel house of what we expected. I will say I'm looking forward to the warmer temperatures in the forecast late Sunday and into Monday."
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Weather officials said Winter Storm Jupiter started like they thought it would and would probably leave the amount of ice they thought it would.
"We're still looking at one-fourth to half an inch of ice," said Meteorologist Melissa Byrd of the National Weather Service in St. Louis. "The forecast calls for the light freezing rain to continue through Friday night. It may let up during the day Saturday, but it looks like it will pick up again Saturday afternoon and into Sunday."
Byrd said the temperatures are expected to start to rise Sunday evening and by Monday be well above freezing so anything that does fall from the skies is rain.
"The one good thing to report now is the winds are staying light," she said. "That should help keep trees and power lines up longer."
Cole County/Jefferson City Emergency Management Director Bill Farr said with all the school and government closures announced Thursday and several businesses not opening Friday, there has been very little traffic on the streets and hardly any other problems during the first part of this storm.
The Jefferson City Memorial Airport announced at 10 a.m that its two runways were closed, but the airport itself is still open for helicopter traffic, and the control tower was open.
"We did do pre-treatment on the runways, but when we tested their conditions with vehicles we were finding it hard to stop and control, so in the interest of safety we decided to close them," said Airport Manager Ron Craft.