County dodges blizzard

Residents across Hardeman County braced themselves last Thursday for what they were told was going to be a major snow storm with some major accumulation, and at times, blizzard like conditions, but when they woke up on Friday, Jan. 22 all they saw was less than a half an inch of snow in many places, not even enough to make the ground totally white.
“It was real disappointing, my daughter wanted to go sledding but there was not enough snow on the ground for much of anything,’ Jason Bell of Bolivar said.
Forecasters had predicted anywhere from three to six inches for our area, but later changed that prediction to one to three inches. By mid morning on Friday, not much had fallen, and for the most part, roads were fairly clear. A second round of snow started to fall on Friday afternoon, but it was still not enough to totally cover the ground.
According to Ron Childers, chief meteorologist for WMC Channel 5 in Memphis, it is always difficult to predict winter precipitation in this area due to our location.
“We live in a subtropical zone where the convergence of warm moist air and cold dry air seldom collide. This system, which is the same system impacting the east coast was especially difficult because it was forming right on top of us. In other words, the main ingredients for this big storm system were all coming together right here in the mid-south. The abundant gulf moisture was the first to arrive triggered by a surface low pressure system to our south. Then the cold air was moving in Thursday night followed by an upper level low that was forming to our southwest.

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