For Golden Triangle residents Wednesday evening, it was a rare sight: snow.
And not just a few flakes here and there, either. The white stuff accumulated.
Many area businesses closed their doors, school districts canceled classes and people of all ages bundled up and had some fun, tossing snowballs and building snowmen.
According to the National Weather Service in Jackson, the heaviest snow accumulation came in Caledonia with eight inches. Columbus Air Force Base recorded six inches. Five inches were recorded in West Point, with Columbus and Starkville each recording four inches.
Anna Weber, a forecaster with NWS, told The Dispatch this morning that official snowfall totals would be announced later today.
The NWS does not keep records from this area for record snow falls, according to Weber. A storm in 1963 dumped 14 inches on Meridian, she added.
Several businesses benefited from Wednesday’s snow.
Area grocery stores began seeing high customer volume on Tuesday in advance of the winter weather.
Vowell’s Marketplace manager Max Stillman in Starkville said the first customer influx hit on Tuesday afternoon and a second wave hit after the sleet started Wednesday afternoon.
“We moved a lot of bread and milk, and as always, bottled water was popular,” Stillman said. “Canned vegetables were hit really hard, as were smoked meat and dry meat products.”
For Donald Barksdale, owner of Champion Towing and Recovery in Columbus, Wednesday proved a busy day.
“Oh, man, we were slammed up until about 11:30 at night,” Barskdale said. “It was one call after another. We only towed two vehicles, though. The other calls were situations where all we had to do was pull cars back onto the road or get them unstuck.”
“Mostly, it was just a matter of people going too fast and sliding off the road,” he added.
The snow began mid-afternoon Wednesday and continued, at varying paces, until roughly midnight. Weber said The Golden Triangle will likely see snow flurries this afternoon, but nothing will accumulate.
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