Freezing precipitation began before daybreak in parts of the Golden Triangle and the forecast called for the cold, ice and snow to get worse through at least noon today.
At 7:45 a.m. today, the temperature was 32 degrees in Columbus, according to accuweather.com. On Wednesday, the temperature in the Golden Triangle reached the upper-70s. The dip is expected to continue.
“You’re looking at record lows Friday morning,” John Moore III, a forecaster with the Memphis office of the National Weather Service, said of the northern third of the state.
Gov. Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency Wednesday afternoon.
The Mississippi Highway Patrol reported via social media at about 7 a.m. that troopers were working “multiple accidents…due to frozen roadways” in the Golden Triangle. MHP reported a little after 7 a.m. that “all major corridors” — Highway 82, Highway 45, Highway 45 Alternate and Highway 25 — were icing over.
MHP said travel was not advised throughout the day.
Starkville police chief Frank Nichols said his officers had responded to a few traffic accidents where drivers had slid into ditches, but as of 7 a.m. none of those had resulted in injury.
As of 7 a.m., 4-County Electric Power Association had reported no outages.
Because of the icy precipitation along roadways, schools and governments announced closures.
Both the city of Columbus and Starkville closed their offices today. Columbus offices will be closed Friday as usual. Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman told The Dispatch a decision about whether to reopen the city’s office Friday is pending.
Wiseman said at roughly 6:45 a.m. that no power outages had been reported in Starkville. There had been no reports of trees down or other property damage in Starkville by press time.
Mississippi State, Mississippi University for Women and East Mississippi Community College were closed today, as were Columbus city schools and Lowndes County schools.
Golden Triangle Regional Airport Director Mike Hainsey said the airport had closed down, but he expected to resume normal options later today.
“We have a 6:45 a.m. flight that is still on the ground now,” Hainsey said at 7:45 this morning. “We also have a 10:45 a.m. flight that has been canceled. But we expect as the weather improves, we’ll be back in operation.”
Golden Triangle Waste Services announced that Thursday’s collection would happen Friday, and Friday route will run Saturday, weather permitting.
The Associated Press and Dispatch reporters Carl Smith, Zack Plair and Slim Smith contributed to this report.
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