A complex weather pattern eventually evolved into a widespread winter weather event across the area on January 6th, 2017. Strong surface high, near 1030mb, was building into the central and southern Plains. Tuesday, January 2nd, 2017 was much warmer being in the 70s with severe weather and tornadoes, while in the wake over the two days after on Wednesday and Thursday, strong surface high pressure with much cooler air gradually filtered in. The strongest push of strong high pressure and colder air began to move in Friday morning.
A sharp contrast in temperatures existed across the area from the lower Mississippi Valley into the Gulf of Mexico as a stalled frontal boundary stayed situated along the coast. This helped the cold air stay locked in place over the area, with temperatures near freezing Friday morning. In addition, a strong upper level disturbance was helping to promote lift and an area of snowfall moving through Oklahoma/Arkansas region by early Friday morning. This area mostly stayed just to the north of the region. Along and over top of the shallow arctic airmass, as the upper disturbance approached, moisture began to overrun the cold air below by early Friday morning. This moisture gradually overran the entire region by mid-morning. The atmosphere contained a deep melting layer, that as a snowfall fell, it completely melted. However, there was enough of a layer below that near the ground that helped to refreeze most of the precipitation to fall in the form of sleet and freezing rain. Sleet began to fall by early morning over northeast Louisiana by early Friday morning and spreading to the north and east into most of the ArkLaMiss by mid morning to late afternoon. There were some cases of some shallow instability present for some thunder to occur with the sleet.
The main disturbance and lift occurred in the mid-late afternoon and heaviest sleet production occurred during that time, right around rush hour. To make matters worse, temperatures were hovering in the low 30s to upper 20s while precipitation was falling. Overall, with such cold temperatures throughout the afternoon, there was significant sleet accumulation, especially from Franklin Parish in Louisiana, southeast towards Adams County in Louisiana, over to Warren County in Mississippi, throughout the Jackson Metro area and east along I-20 towards Lauderdale County and as far north as Noxubee County. Heavy sleet occurred throughout this region, with some areas approaching a 1/2 to 1 inch of sleet. Some areas in east-northeast Mississippi had enough precipitation with temperatures cooling in the atmosphere to briefly change over to snow as well, near Meridian and east-northeast Mississippi. Most areas in southeast Mississippi were slower to change over to mixed precipitation until later in the event. With cold ground and road temperatures, significant icing and accumulation began across the roadways throughout portions of northeast Louisiana, central, east and northeast Mississippi, especially along the Interstate 20 corridor. This led to significant icing on roadways and bridges, leading to icy roadways and major traffic issues. Many accidents occurred across the region, leading to some major thoroughfares being shut down, at least temporarily, especially for portions of Interstate 55, Interstate 20 and other roadways. This led to many area residents encountering slow downs in traffic and some being stuck for many hours on the roadways. In addition, the Jackson International Airport had to be shut down due to icy runways. The disturbance gradually moved east late evening, helping the precipitation to taper off and move out by late evening, around 9-10PM.
The strong surface high built and strengthened near 1040mb, leading to much colder air filtering in overnight and through the weekend. This led to hard freeze conditions with highs struggling to reach the freezing mark, especially across central and northern areas. A snowpack existed over central Arkansas, northern Mississippi and southern Tennessee. With northerly winds over that snowpack, this helped to lock in even colder air and biting wind chills, with wind chills falling into the single digits over most of the area. Some areas in the Delta stayed below freezing for over 60 hours. This in addition to temperatures falling into the low-mid teens over the next several nights, kept a lot of winter weather accumulation to linger around through the weekend, with icy roadways for the next couple of days into Saturday, January 7th and Sunday, January 8th. This led to significant traffic issues lingering into the early weekend, with roadways gradually improving as some of that melted under full sun by Saturday and mostly gone by Sunday into the start of the following work week. This significant winter weather event will be one that will be remembered for years to come.

Sleet in ADAMS, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 05:30:00 to 06-JAN-17 18:00:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

One-half inch accumulation of sleet accumulated on Bridges and overpasses and other elevated surfaces. The highest accumulations were over the central and northern portions of the county.

Sleet in CLAIBORNE, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 06:30:00 to 06-JAN-17 17:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 50.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

One-half inch of sleet accumulated on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces.

Sleet in JEFFERSON, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 06:30:00 to 06-JAN-17 17:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Up to one-half inch of sleet accumulated on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces. The highest accumlations fell over the very southern portions of the county.

Sleet in COPIAH, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 07:30:00 to 06-JAN-17 19:00:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 50.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

One-half inch accumulation of sleet accumulated on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces. The highest accumulations were over the northern portions of the county.

Sleet in WARREN, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 07:00:00 to 06-JAN-17 17:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 200.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

One-half inch accumulation of sleet accumulated on Bridges and overpasses and other elevated surfaces. The sleet caused I-20 to be shut down. There were several accidents across the county. The highest accumulations were over the central and northern portions of the county.

Sleet in HINDS, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 07:30:00 to 06-JAN-17 18:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 500.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

One-half inch accumulation of sleet accumulated on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces. I-55, I-20 and Highway 49 was closed to to the heavy sleet. Several accidents were also reported across the county.

Sleet in SIMPSON, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 06:30:00 to 06-JAN-17 17:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 20.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Up to one-half inch of sleet accumulated on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces.

Sleet in RANKIN, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 06:30:00 to 06-JAN-17 17:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 400.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Official NWS Observations

Up to Eight-tenths of an inch of sleet fell across the county. Several accidents were also reported. Both runways at Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers Airport were closed due to the sleet accumulations.

Sleet in JEFFERSON DAVIS, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 07:00:00 to 06-JAN-17 19:00:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 20.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

One half inch of sleet accumulations and one quarter inch of ice on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces.

Winter Weather in WINSTON, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 07:15:00 to 06-JAN-17 19:00:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

A tenth of an inch of sleet accumulated near Nanih Waiya.

Sleet in JONES, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 07:00:00 to 06-JAN-17 19:00:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 20.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Up to one-half inch of sleet accumulated on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces. The highest accumulations fell over the northern portions of the county. One half an inch was reported at the big creek water park.

Sleet in SMITH, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 07:00:00 to 06-JAN-17 20:00:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 50.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

One quarter to one-half inch of sleet accumulated on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces. The highest accumulations fell over the Polkville area where .50 inches fell.

Sleet in JASPER, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 07:15:00 to 06-JAN-17 20:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 50.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Up to one-half inch of sleet accumulated on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces. The highest accumulations fell near the Turnerville area along Highway 15.

Sleet in NOXUBEE, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 09:00:00 to 06-JAN-17 20:45:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 20.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Up to one inch of sleet and snow accumulated on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces across the county.

Sleet in NEWTON, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 08:45:00 to 06-JAN-17 20:00:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 75.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Up to one inch of sleet accumulated on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces across the county. Light accumulations of snow and ice was also reported.

Sleet in SCOTT, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 08:15:00 to 06-JAN-17 19:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 50.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Up to one-half inch of sleet accumulated on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces across the county. The highest accumulations were reported along I-20 near Forest.

Sleet in LEAKE, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 08:15:00 to 06-JAN-17 18:45:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 50.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Up to one-half inch of sleet accumulated on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces across the county. The highest accumulations were over the Walnut Grove area.

Sleet in NESHOBA, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 08:30:00 to 06-JAN-17 19:15:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 70.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: CoCoRaHS

Up to seven tenths of an inch of sleet accumulated on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces across the county. The highest accumulations were near the Philadelphia area.

Winter Weather in FRANKLIN, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 06:00:00 to 06-JAN-17 19:00:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Three tenths of an inch of sleet accumulated near Meadville.

Winter Weather in LINCOLN, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 06:00:00 to 06-JAN-17 19:00:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Up to one quarter of an inch of sleet accumulated near Brookhaven.

Winter Weather in LAWRENCE, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 06:15:00 to 06-JAN-17 19:15:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

A dusting of sleet fell across the county.

Winter Weather in COVINGTON, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 07:15:00 to 06-JAN-17 20:15:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 10.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Law Enforcement

Up to a quarter an inch of sleet and ice fell across the county. The highest amounts were near Seminary, where one quarter an inch accumulated on the Okatoma River Bridge.

Winter Weather in CLARKE, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 08:00:00 to 06-JAN-17 20:45:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 10.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

Up to a tenth of an inch of sleet accumulated across the county.

Sleet in MADISON, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 07:30:00 to 06-JAN-17 18:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 50.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

One-half inch accumulation of sleet accumulated on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces over the southern portions of the county.

Winter Weather in NOXUBEE, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 07:15:00 to 06-JAN-17 19:15:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Broadcast Media

Heavy snow with light accumulations.

Sleet in KEMPER, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 09:00:00 to 06-JAN-17 20:45:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 20.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Up to one inch of sleet and snow accumulated on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces across the county. The highest accumulations were near Scooba.

Sleet in LAUDERDALE, MISSISSIPPI
From 06-JAN-17 09:00:00 to 06-JAN-17 20:45:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 200.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Up to one-half inch of sleet and snow accumulated on Bridges, overpasses and other elevated surfaces across the county. Light accumulations of ice were also reported which brought down a couple of trees.