Columbia residents woke up this morning to as much as 15½ inches of snow, said Scott Truett, a senior forecaster for the National Weather Service in St. Louis.
The 24-hour snowfall as of 3:30 a.m. today left 15.3 inches at Columbia Regional Airport, making it the second-most significant 24-hour snow accumulation since 1900. In 1995, 19.7 inches fell in a 24-hour period. "Between midnight and 7 a.m., there was 11 inches," said Pat Guinan, a University of Missouri extension climatologist. "That’s an amazing event."
MU canceled classes today for the first time since the record-breaking snow in January 1995. Columbia Public Schools, along with most school districts in the area, called off school, and major businesses including MSB Textbooks and First National Bank also closed today. Major interstates shut down, including Interstate 70 through Columbia. Emergency crews were urging residents to stay home. "What we’re experiencing is people trying to get somewhere, getting stuck and clogging up the roads," Boone County Fire District Division Chief Gale Blomenkamp said. "Road crews are unable to clear up the roads because of that."
Even snowplows were getting stuck. Tom Boland of Columbia Turf said he and six other trucks had been out since 11 p.m. yesterday, and by 8 this morning, Boland was stuck in a driveway at the Richland Heights Mobile Home Park on East St. Charles Road.
Only two of the company’s trucks were running this morning, owner Bill McWilliams said. The rest were stuck. "It was a whiteout last night. We probably shouldn’t have been out, but we we’re trying to get ahead of it," McWilliams said. "It came so fast, the wind was so strong, we couldn’t do anything."
Boone County had 14 plow and cinder trucks on the roads this morning, along with nine contract trucks from private companies, Public Works Manager Chip Estabrooks said.
"It’s a bigger storm than we’ve seen in several years," he said. "We’re just going to have to be slow and methodical in getting these roads cleared."
Columbia snowplow drivers were ordered off the streets at about 3:45 a.m.
"It was blowing and snowing so hard that it was not safe for anyone," said Mary Ellen Lea, the city’s operation manager for public works.
But the entire fleet of 17 plow trucks and two graders was back out this morning.
Area utilities were largely spared.
Although the worst of the storm is over, Truett of the Weather Service said, it could be days before residents are able to dig out.
"I don’t see any big warm-up, at least through Monday," he said. "Next week it will be in the upper 20s and lower 30s for a couple of days, then in the 40s by Wednesday. So it’s going to hang around for a while."
That doesn’t mean the area is going to stay white all winter, experts stressed. In 1995, most of the snow of the season fell during the single January storm, Guinan said. "Before and after that, only a few inches fell," he said.
It might even be a mild year, Truett said. "The long-term forecast for the winter is above-normal temperatures and probably drier than normal."
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