Winter Weather Comes to Oxford Monday, Freezing Temps to Stay for Days

Oxford was covered in ice when the town woke up Monday morning.
Photo by Angela Rogalski

What happens tomorrow for Oxford and its citizens when it comes to work, school and other activities that involve driving our city and county roads while we’re in the grips of Ol’ Man Winter? Emergency Management Director for the city of Oxford Jimmy Allgood said expectations for tonight are being considered very carefully.

Photo courtesy UM Communications

“We’re looking at temperatures to go down into the teens tonight,” Allgood said. “Wednesday night we’re expecting single-digit temperatures, but our concerns right now are two-fold. With the continued precipitation that we’re having sticking to trees and power lines and knocking limbs down onto those power lines, that concern is there. But that seems to have improved over the last half hour or so. Our next concern with tonight is if all this moisture is still on the roadways and we get down to a low of about 18 or 19 degrees, it will freeze. And this will make driving conditions very hazardous, especially where roadways aren’t dried up and on bridges and overpasses.”

Allgood said people driving tomorrow during early morning hours should be extra careful and stay at home completely if at all possible.

“This is the right conditions for black ice,” he said. “You won’t be able to see it, especially in early morning, lowlight conditions. I’m going to be driving the roads, bridges and overpasses in the morning around 4:30 a.m. and reporting back to our office and the schools. If people have to be out, they need to use extreme caution and take extra time.”

Photo by Amelia Camurati

Adam Pugh, superintendent for Lafayette County District Schools said tomorrow would be a wait-and-see situation for them.

“The rain, according to the weather reports, is supposed to stop between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. tonight,” Pugh said. “Hopefully, with the traffic on the roads, it won’t freeze over, but we’ll look at the situation in the early morning hours and talk with the sheriff’s department and the deputies that are on duty, be sure of the road conditions and make a decision then. Today we dismissed car riders beginning at 1:15 in the afternoon, with buses leaving at 2:00 p.m.”

Kelly Graeber is the communications coordinator for the Oxford School District. Graeber said that like Lafayette, they would have to wait and see what the morning brings before any final decisions are made.

“It’s the same situation for us, wait-and-see,” Graeber said. “We’ll have to see what happens overnight and then make a decision on tomorrow based on the information we receive. And of course, we’re always monitoring the weather ourselves to help make those decisions and checking with other area schools. Today, we had a two hour delay in the school day, but tomorrow we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”

HottyToddy.com will keep you updated on this site and through our Facebook page if there are any other changes.

Angela Rogalski is a HottyToddy.com staff reporter and can be reached at angela.rogalski@hottytoddy.com.