More winter weather possible tonight

Alex Meller stacks bags of salt used to melt ice onto a dolly for customer pick up Monday. Meller works at Pay Way Feed Store on Jefferson Street and was responding to phone calls to have the material ready for customers to be able to stop and retrieve quickly. Meller has worked at the store for four years and enjoys offering the personal touch of loading items for customers. Several regular customers called Monday after hearing the latest forecast of snow and ice in the coming days. He also noted several customers came in to fill their bird seed needs.
Alex Meller stacks bags of salt used to melt ice onto a dolly for customer pick up Monday. Meller works at Pay Way Feed Store on Jefferson Street and was responding to phone calls to have the material ready for customers to be able to stop and retrieve quickly. Meller has worked at the store for four years and enjoys offering the personal touch of loading items for customers. Several regular customers called Monday after hearing the latest forecast of snow and ice in the coming days. He also noted several customers came in to fill their bird seed needs.

There's a chance of more winter weather tonight in Mid-Missouri with the most likely period of snow and ice predicted before 3 a.m. Wednesday. This morning's forecast revises an earlier prediction which speculated snow would fall throughout today, although some areas surrounding the Lake of the Ozarks still have a chance for flurries and light snow today.

The National Weather Service Office predicts the Jefferson City area has a small chance of snow after 5 p.m. today, with today's high temperature of 28 degrees. Then there's a 50 percent chance of snow and freezing rain overnight before 3 a.m. Wednesday. Total snowfall accumulations up to half an inch and total ice accumulations of up to one tenth of an inch are expected.

The NWS issued a Winter Weather Advisory in effect from 6 p.m. today until 6 a.m. Wednesday for much of central Missouri. The combination of snow and freezing rain may result in difficult travel conditions, including during the morning commute on Wednesday.

Cole County and Jefferson City public works crews hope not to see a repeat of what happened Sunday afternoon.

"On Sunday what happened was temperatures fell rapidly and the snow intensified harder than anticipated," Cole County Public Works Director Larry Benz said. "That was a bad combination because the initial snow became wet after vehicles went over it and the rapid freeze made the roads slick very quickly."

Temperatures dropped below the level where salt alone is effective, so crews had to add cinders and sand to help vehicles get traction on roads, Benz said.

Benz and Jefferson City Operations Division Director Britt Smith said road crews stayed on duty through the Monday evening rush hour to make sure people could travel to their destinations as safely as possible should icy weather occur.

"It is sometimes easier to deal with a 6-inch snow than half-inch or 1-inch storms," Smith said. "When you have a larger storm, the people stay at home and we can get out and get caught up with that; but when you have these smaller amounts, people are used to that in our area so they may stay in for a while, but they get back out once the snow stops. So that can make some areas get slick quickly."

Smith said they didn't have as many problems on streets with low traffic volumes as they did with the high-volume ones, such as Missouri Boulevard, where a lot of slowing down or stop-and-go driving takes place.

Smith and Benz said city and county supplies of salt and other road materials are in good shape for now.

Officials with the Missouri Department of Transportation said Monday they would continue to have crews out treating roads and overpasses with salt, beet juice and other abrasives as needed.

To check on road conditions, MoDOT's Traveler Information Map at modot.org offers the latest road conditions, as well as real-time traffic flow and traffic cameras that provide a view of traffic on the interstates across Missouri. The department also has a toll-free customer service line which is answered 24 hours a day, 1-888-ASK-MoDOT (275-6636).