2024-01-22 19:08:26
The icy road conditions that have persisted in north Mississippi for the last week are expected to end Monday as a round of heavy rain moves into the area, but with that comes the potential for flooding, the National Weather Service in Memphis reported.
Overnight lows were in the mid to upper 20s in northern Mississippi, forcing school closures in some areas that still have icy road conditions, but the ice is expected to melt for the most part by Monday afternoon.
“The good news is, we’re not expecting much freezing temperatures anywhere near north Mississippi over the next several days,” said Caitlin Dirkes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Memphis, which monitors weather in north Mississippi. “Winter is pretty much over.”
While ice-free roads are good news, Dirkes said, the state isn’t in the clear just yet. Rain is expected to move into the state Monday afternoon and will continue into Tuesday and beyond, bringing around 3 to 4 inches of rain in the northern part of the state.
“We’re really not expecting much in the way of winter impact,” she said, but “there definitely could be some potential for flooding.”
As of Monday morning, northeast Mississippi still had several large patches of ice on some of the inside lanes of four-lane highways, said David Kenney, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Transportation. He said it would be at least Tuesday morning before he could give the all-clear for state highways.
“Two-lane highways up here are still dangerous in many places,” Kenney said.
In northwest Mississippi, the four-lane highways are clear except for a few spotty areas and some two-lane highways are still covered, especially in shaded areas, Kenney said.
“I’d leave alerts (on) until tomorrow morning at this point,” he said. “Hopefully with it getting to the upper 40s today and staying in 40s all night, it’ll come off.”
The area still impacted by icy roads includes 23 counties across north Mississippi. Some schools remained closed for at least another day, since many city and county roads are still seeing icy conditions.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency reported Sunday there were 11 weather-related deaths in the state because of the extreme weather conditions. Those deaths were reported in Chickasaw, Humphreys, Leflore, Panola, Rankin, Sharkey, Sunflower and Washington counties.
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