WINTER'S FURY HITS AGAIN; CITY GETS 6 INCHES OF WET SNOW

Last week, the Cape Girardeau area was clobbered by a surprise 12-inch snowstorm, the heaviest snowfall here in 14 years. This week, it was central Missouri's turn to feel the wrath of Mother Nature.

Thursday's storm occurred on the anniversary of a 1979 storm that buried Cape Girardeau and surrounding counties under 24 inches of snow.

This week's storm left only 6 inches of snow behind at Cape, but 11-12 inches of snow fell in a heavier band along the I-70 corridor between Kansas City and St. Louis.

The weather service at Paducah, Ky., said other snow depths late Thursday afternoon included 6 inches at Charleston, 2-3 inches at Kennett, 8 inches at Marble Hill, 7 inches at Poplar Bluff and Paducah, 9 inches at Carbondale, Ill., and 10 inches at Metropolis, Marion and Harrisburg, all in Illinois.

To the north of Cape, snow depths in Perry County averaged 8-9 inches, while up to 12 inches fell in Iron County. The Jackson Fire Department Cooperative Weather Station measured 8 inches at 9 a.m. Thursday.

The storm forced most area schools to cancel classes on Thursday. Many had been closed several days last week because of the earlier storm.

Missouri Weather Cooperative at the Cape airport said light snow began at 8:11 p.m. Tuesday. By midnight, only half an inch had accumulated. But then the snow became heavier. By 3 a.m., two inches were on the ground. At 6 a.m., four inches had fallen. By 9 a.m., there were six inches on the ground.

By mid-morning, most of the snow at Cape Girardeau had changed to a light rain mixed with some ice pellets. Throughout the rest of the afternoon a light drizzle fell on top of the snow.

As the temperature climbed above freezing early Thursday afternoon, Cape Girardeau Public Works Department street crews were able to remove much of the slushy snow from the primary streets in the business and residential areas of the city.

Public Works Director Doug Leslie said the first snow removal crew came in at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday and worked until 7 a.m. Thursday, when relieved by the second snow removal crew.

The first snow crew was to come back on duty at 7 p.m. Thursday. "Our plan for tonight (Thursday) is to blade the streets around the schools so they can reopen in the morning, and start working on clearing the secondary and residential area streets," he said.

Like last week's storm, Thursday's snow was heavy enough at times that street crews had to go back and re-plow some of the primary streets that had been cleared early in the morning.

Though a few city vehicles got hung up in the snow, Leslie said Thursday's snow removal operation went very well. "I think our efforts were very successful. Everyone worked together to get the streets cleared as soon as possible," he remarked.

"We were just recovering from last week's storm, so it was particularly difficult to get back into a mode to handle another large snow removal job.

"It was another maximum effort by a lot of city employees, including public works, water division and solid waste, who assisted us."

The weather service at St. Charles said the forecast for Missouri for the first week of March calls for near normal temperatures (in the 50s) and precipitation.

The weather service said the weekend weather outlook for the Cape area calls for clearing skies by Sunday, with lows in the 20s and highs in the mid-30s to low 40s.