Extreme Cold/Wind Chill — Lamar, Mississippi

2026-01-25 to 2026-01-26 · Lamar, Mississippi

Event narrative

Wind chills across the county fell as low as 0 degrees during the early morning of January 26th.

Wider weather episode

A historically damaging ice storm occurred from southwestern Mississippi northeast through the Delta region into North Mississippi. The corridor of heaviest ice accretion, with ice thickness measured at up to one inch, spanned from Sharkey and Issaquena counties and southern Washington County, through Humphreys, Holmes, and northwestern Yazoo counties, through Leflore, Carroll, and Grenada counties. Tree damage in this region was tremendous, and several homes were damaged or destroyed by falling trees. Travel impacts persisted through Friday, January 30th in some areas. More than 189,000 customers in Mississippi lost power during the peak of the storm with thousands of power poles broken. Full power restoration took more than two weeks in the hardest hit areas, and it took more than one week for some customers in Attala, Bolivar, Carroll Grenada, Holmes, Humphreys, Issaquena, Leflore, Madison, Montgomery, Sharkey, Sunflower, Warren, Washington, Webster and Yazoo counties. Some meters remained unpowered for three weeks in the hardest hit portions of our area. The loss of electricity and the very cold temperatures that followed resulted in the loss of water in several communities.

Significant sleet accumulations, as high as 2 to 3 inches occurred in parts of northwest Mississippi. In these areas, the weight of the accumulation resulted in the collapse of several sheds, carports, gas station awnings and the roofs of some buildings. Sleet remained on the ground across much of Bolivar, Sunflower, and Washington counties for an entire week, with some of the deeper sleet accumulations through Bolivar County persisting through at least Sunday, February 8th.

Bitter cold conditions followed the storm, with temperatures as low as 11 at Bluff Lake, 12 at Natchez and Starkville, 13 at Ackerman, Collins, Crystal Springs, Forest, and Golden Triangle Airport; 14 at Brookhaven, Canton, Columbia, Columbus AFB, Hawkins Field in Jackson, Louisville, Madison, Newton, and Philadelphia; 15 at Jackson International; 16 at Greenville, Indianola, Meridian, and Vicksburg; and 17 at Cleveland, Laurel, and Rolling Fork. Wind chills were as low as -1 at Greenville, 2 at Golden Triangle Airport, 3 at Louisville, 4 at Natchez; 5 at Columbus AFB, Hawkins Field in Jackson, and Vicksburg; 6 at Cleveland, Crystal Springs, Jackson, Meridian, and Starkville; 7 at Madison, 8 at Philadelphia, and 9 at Canton and Laurel. Note: At several area weather stations, the lowest wind chill was unavailable because the anemometer was frozen and unable to record wind speed data.

Severn deaths occurred in the Mississippi counties in the NWS Jackson area - four due to exposure to the cold in Hinds, Sharkey, Warren, and Yazoo counties, and three in fire-related incidents in Adams, Leflore, and Jefferson counties. Additional injuries were reported in Grenada, Hinds, Sharkey, Smith, Warren, and Washington counties. At least 278 residences and nine businesses were damaged or destroyed in the Mississippi portion of our forecast area.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1315598. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.