South MS roads will be ‘a mess’ Wednesday. Here’s why and when conditions will improve
Motorists will continue to find travel challenging until Thursday because of snow and ice that accumulated Tuesday during a historic Gulf snowfall.
Meteorologist Phil Grigsby of the National Weather Service said freezing temperatures Tuesday night, with warming to only about 34 degrees Wednesday in South Mississippi, means snow and ice will linger on roadways. Temperatures are not expected to warm into the 40s until Thursday, when travel should become easier.
South Mississippi hasn’t seen this much snow since 1963, when Gulfport received a record 7-inch snowfall.
“South Mississippi does not deal with this very often, so the more we can get people off the roads, the better off we’ll be,” said Anna Ehrgott, a public information officer for the Mississippi Department of Transportation.
How cold will South MS get?
Grigsby’s advice for Wednesday: “Do not drive. There’s not going to be any melt. The roads are still going to be extremely hazardous (Wednesday) morning, so we’re still advising people to stay off the roads.”
MDOT has been plowing heavily traveled roads such as Interstates 10, 110 and 59, along with state highways 90, 49 and 67. MDOT and local governments also are salting roadways to melt snow and ice. But emergency managers and government officials are advising motorists to stay off the roads.
“I don’t ever recall this much snow,” said Brian “Hooty” Adam, emergency management director in Hancock County, Adam, who is 62 years old, was only a year old when the record snowfall hit.
Adam expects the roads to be “a mess” Wednesday.
Grigsby said overnight temperatures in South Mississippi will dip to 13 or 14 degrees, with an extreme cold warning in effect until 9 a.m. Wednesday for Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties. The wind chill could dip as low as 7 degrees, the weather service says.
On Wednesday, Grigsby said, “The snow and ice is not going to melt at all.”
This story was originally published January 22, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
