Winter Weather — Ripley, Missouri

2025-01-05 · Ripley, Missouri

Wider weather episode

A winter storm, with locally major to historic impacts, affected southeast Missouri on the 5th with a mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain. A brief wintry mix that fell primarily as freezing rain quickly transitioned to plain rain later that morning and afternoon across much of the region. Peak accumulations ranged from a trace to a half inch of snow and sleet along with a glaze of ice. Further north across portions of Perry, Bollinger and Cape Girardeau County, more snow and sleet had occurred on the onset before transitioning to a prolong period of freezing rain and eventually plain rain. Wrap around moisture caused one final burst of snow into the morning hours on the 6th after a lull that evening with patchy freezing drizzle. This is where the thickest glaze of ice between a quarter to three quarters of an inch and a half to 2 inches of snow and sleet had accumulated that led to widespread treacherous travel conditions, traffic accidents, and major power outages. Reports of thunder during sleet and freezing rain were observed across the region. A line that extended 4 miles south of Puxico to Dexter in Stoddard County, MO made the difference in experiencing iced over trees and power lines. Electric crews had to contend with extensive tree damage and managed an area approximately 5,872 meters without power in Perry County, MO that experienced some of the greatest impacts. Over 20 broken poles along with broken crossarms and insulators were identified by the crew. Countless downed branches were also observed throughout Cape Girardeau County, MO where a large tree fell down on power lines near the intersection of Perryville Rd and Sherwood Ln in the city of Cape Girardeau. Over 100,000 residents across the entire tri-state region were without power during its peak that night into the following morning, with over 5000 outages in Perry County, 4000 outages in Cape Girardeau County and 2500 outages in Bollinger County, MO. Temperatures near freezing warmed across most of the region later that morning into the afternoon, but a shallow cold layer near 1000 ft above ground level made the ice reluctant to melt off the tree branches. The heavy weight on trees led to additional power outages during the day on the 6th due to wind gusts over 20 mph. Wet surfaces the prior night also resulted in a flash freeze as temperatures quickly plummeted back below freezing into the 20s. Key Impacts: transportation delays, traffic accidents, power outages.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1225073. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.