Snowy Veterans Day welcomes Mid-Missouri road crews to winter

Snow flies around members of the Jefferson City Police Honor Guard as they wait to fire the 21 Gun Salute on Monday, Nov. 11, 2019, during the East Side Business Association's annual Veterans Tribune at McClung Park Pavilion. The event was moved from Freedom Corner due to the day's inclement weather.
Snow flies around members of the Jefferson City Police Honor Guard as they wait to fire the 21 Gun Salute on Monday, Nov. 11, 2019, during the East Side Business Association's annual Veterans Tribune at McClung Park Pavilion. The event was moved from Freedom Corner due to the day's inclement weather.

Local road crews tackled their first snow event of the season Monday.

A few of Cole County's 32 snow crew members checked on roads early Monday morning, treating some bridges and overpasses, county Public Works Director Larry Benz said. It wasn't until early afternoon that the full crew was called in to treat all roads.

"We put a light coat of salt out, and thanks to the snow exiting the area late in the afternoon we didn't have too much trouble," Benz said. "We'll have a skeleton crew go out and check on things Tuesday morning to see what more we may need to do then."

Jefferson City Operations Division Director Britt Smith said the road temperatures on streets in town stayed above freezing until early Monday afternoon, when the city's 24-member snow crew was called in.

"We especially hit the school areas so the buses could get in and out," Smith said. "Not having people working on the (Veterans Day) holiday did keep traffic down, and that helped.

"Still, it's been a year since we've had to drive in this weather, and hopefully this causes people to remember they need to take it slow and easy when the snow and ice hit."

As of 5 p.m. on Monday, the Missouri Highway Patrol's Troop F in Jefferson City reported their troppers had responded to over 200 calls for service. That included 89 crashes with eight injuries and 67 slide-offs. There were no fatalities reported.

While the wintry weather will continue today, the long-range forecast from the National Weather Service in St. Louis shows high temperatures reaching the mid- to upper 40s and staying at that range or higher throughout the rest of the week and into next week.

Those high temperatures are still 10 degrees colder than normal, but the lack of precipitation in the forecast is good news, NWS officials noted.

Monday's storm appeared to have dropped heavier amounts of snow north of Jefferson City, with Columbia seeing around 3-4 inches and most locations farther south receiving 2-3 inches, NWS officials reported.