Another - and what many hope is a final - wintry blast hit Jefferson City early Sunday morning, blanketing the Jefferson City area with 2 or more inches of snow.
The snow tapered off around mid-morning, but not before some church services and other events were canceled for the day.
At 8:30 a.m. Sunday, many local roads were still snow-covered and cars were scarce. Snowplows appeared to outnumber other vehicles on some streets. Even on normally busier roads like Whitton Expressway, there were times no cars could be seen in either direction, near its intersection with Madison Street.
Many events were cancelled. Some churches that did hold services had low attendance. First Presbyterian Church had an estimated two dozen people at its first service, while nearby First Baptist Church cancelled its services for the day.
The Jefferson City YMCA and the Missouri River Regional Library were closed.
The Jefferson City Animal Shelter posted a video Sunday morning of three dogs at the shelter frolicking in the snow. The caption read: "Elsa, Flora and Millie out enjoying what will hopefully be the last snow of the season."
By about 11 a.m., snowplows had cleared many of the streets. Salt and other chemicals spread on roads combined with the sun to melt some of the snow, despite temperatures hovering at 20 or below the entire day.
At 3:20 p.m., Cole County Public Works Director Larry Benz was still working with his crew of 31 workers.
"Everything went great as far as the snow event," Benz said. "We're waiting for a couple trucks to get back, and we're all going home."
He and Britt Smith, Jefferson City's Operations Division director, said the fact the sun came out helped a lot to clear the roads.
"Sunlight helps no matter what the temperature is," Benz said. "If we can get the sun out, things go a lot better for us."
Benz said weather forecasters are calling for a possible rain-snow mix later in the week. "But hopefully the temperatures will start slowing rising and we'll get back to our normal spring that we seem to be missing so far," he said.
He may get his wish. Current forecasts show rain likely Friday and Saturday. Friday temperatures should range from 34-42 degrees and on Saturday, the low is expected to be 39 and the high 55.
He said motorists generally played it safe by staying off the roads Sunday, which also made plowing easier for his crews. "It was pretty lonely out there," he said. "It was nice for people to be able to stay home with their families."
However, he urged motorists this morning to watch out for areas on streets that could have refroze overnight, leaving icy patches.
Jefferson City Police Department's Sgt. Gary Campbell said the city and county only responded to three wrecks Sunday morning, and the one the JCPD worked was an incident of a vehicle sliding off the road, with no damage to the vehicle.
"It went very smooth, with hardly any issues at all. We did not get the storm that everybody was expecting," he said.
The Jefferson City YMCA's Tom Janson was plowing snow Sunday in the Community Christian Church's parking lot, beside the Firley YMCA. The Y has a contract with the church to share their parking lot and clears snow from the lot.
"Hopefully winter's over soon," he said. "Hopefully we're done."
See also:
School and weather-related announcements for Monday, March 4, 2019