Missouri braces for 'classic' storm

A winter storm described by some forecasters as "classic" rolled into southern Missouri on Monday, disrupting air and vehicle travel amid the prospect of as much as a foot of snow in some stretches.

For some Missourians dreaming of a white Christmas, "they're gonna be thrilled," said Wes Browning of the National Weather Service's Springfield office.

Many motorists might find it all just a headache as the holiday travel period gets into full swing.

"Hopefully, it won't be nearly as bad as it sounds," the AAA Auto Club of Missouri's Mike Right said of the potential mess.

Most Southeast Missourians were still waiting for the full effect of the storm early Monday night. South of Route E, which runs from Pocahontas west and intersects with Interstate 55 at Oak Ridge, most roads were wet but not considered slippery at 9:45 p.m. Monday. North of that line the story was different.

"All roads are snow-covered and hazardous," said a spokeswoman for the Perry County Sheriff's Department.

Debbie Foster of the Missouri Highway Patrol Troop E office in Poplar Bluff, Mo., said all the snow and sleet seemed to be north of Cherokee Pass in Madison County. Roads in Scott and Bollinger counties were wet but not yet icy. No serious accidents had been reported.

While the roads in Sikeston, Mo., also were only wet, a spokeswoman for the Sikeston Department of Public Safety said the city has the "road crews out just in case."

But the National Weather Service predicted that falling temperatures would make travel conditions treacherous late Monday night throughout the region.

The storm that bowled into southwest Missouri about noon Monday produced near-whiteout conditions in some parts, slickening highways and sending numerous motorists into ditches as it inched eastward.

Within hours, that area's largest airport -- Springfield-Branson Regional -- delayed commercial flights Monday afternoon after visibility dropped below what was allowed for airlines, spokeswoman Sherry Wallace said. Private flights still were being allowed to leave, she said.

Elsewhere, American Airlines announced it would let customers traveling to and from St. Louis on Monday and Wednesday to adjust their travel plans, without penalty, to avoid what it called "the challenging weather" expected around the Gateway City.

American's customers who were to travel Monday night or today were "especially encouraged to change their reservations for departure" to earlier Monday, or Wednesday, the airline said.

'Nothing lacking' in storm

The system "is a classic one, with nothing lacking that we can see," Browning said, noting that the storm's ingredients -- moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, upper-level low pressure from the west, and cold, dry air -- made for potential disaster.

By midafternoon Monday, the snowfall was putting Joplin's streets superintendent to the test. Wilbur Gatlin said that city's dozen plow trucks were all in action -- with no sign of stopping.

"Naturally this being Christmas Eve eve, everyone's trying to travel. Actually, they're hindering us from doing our jobs," Gatlin said.

Missouri's southern third likely was to get the heaviest snow, with total accumulation of six to 10 inches -- perhaps even a foot in some spots -- before the storm clears this morning, Browning said.

"It's going to be a very, very dramatic gradient of snow accumulation," Browning said. "In one county, one part may get 10 inches while another may just get an inch -- that's just how tight the gradient is."

Forecasting the fallout, if any, around St. Louis was tricky for that area's meteorologists, who by Monday afternoon managed to conclude that the only certainty was that southern Missouri was going to get pounded, the weather service's Scott Truett said.

"The real dilemma here is, what's going to happen on the storm's northern fringes," Truett said from the service's office in Weldon Spring, a St. Louis suburb. "It appears there'll be a sharp delineation between accumulation and no accumulation."

Staff writer Sam Blackwell contributed to this report.