93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
The National Weather Service issued winter weather advisories and flood watches all over mid-Missouri on Friday.
A wintry mix of precipitation started in mid-Missouri early Friday morning.
The National Weather Service forecast called for us to actually warm up Friday night, and for the precipitation to change to normal rain.
Most school districts have canceled classes. See the list here.
More from Missourinet:
Missouri Transportation Department crews will be out in full force today statewide to battle road conditions from a winter storm system. Todd Miller with MoDOT says plow drivers have been preparing for bad weather and will be working hard during the winter front.
A Missouri Department of Transportation snow plow (2018 file photo courtesy of MoDOT)
“We have over 1,500 plow trucks and we have almost 3,400 operators to operate those plow trucks. We can operate them in 12 hours shifts for a 24 hour response to this event,” he says.
Miller says the weather event will be challenging for road crews and drivers need to travel very carefully.
“It is going to switch from snow to freezing rain. Some chemicals we have down may not last,” he says. “You can’t be everywhere at once. We have 77,000 lane miles of roads that we take care of.”
The system is expected to move from southwest to northeast Missouri, bringing snow and ice to northern, west-central, western and southwest Missouri.
Check out MoDOT’s traveler information map for the latest road conditions.
(This story was last updated 7:55 a.m. Friday.)
