Incoming cold, ice make travel exceedingly dangerous

The Poplar Bluff Police Department and local emergency services received an updated forecast from the National Weather Service Paducah.

During a virtual conference Wednesday, an NWS representative estimated first waves of winter weather will arrive in Poplar Bluff between 12-2 p.m. Thursday. For the following three days the area will see wind chills as low as -20 degrees, rapid freezing of water on roadways and some snow accumulation. The NWS advised everyone to avoid traveling.

Wind chills of various levels below zero will be present at all times between Thursday night and Saturday, NWS cautioned, including during the day. However, the weekend will see the worst of the wind chill taper off.

The road department will make preparations by treating the roads, but PBPD Chief Mike McClain noted these will likely dissolve in the rain before the arctic air hits. When it does the region can expect liquid on the roadway to flash freeze before it is obscured by snowfall. NWS Paducah currently projects 1-3 inches of snow in the area, though likely on the lower side of that in Poplar Bluff. Most of it will fall Thursday afternoon and evening.

McClain commented the amount of snow does not matter when talking about how hazardous these conditions will be.

“Slick’s slick and cold’s cold,” he said.

Former Rep. Jeff Shawan, who was also present at the conference, believes serious problems for residents in general will only arise in the event of major outages. Isolated ones are possible, but wind speeds alone will not be enough to bring down lines.

As of press time, the warming center at First United Methodist Church was unable to open due to lack of staff.