Panola County awoke to snow on March 1, but temperatures forecast to reach the 40s by midday were expected to melt the small accumulation.

The snow began about 9 p.m. Saturday night driven by a brisk north wind that had pushed a mass of cold air through the mid-section of the country to meet warmer, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico.

Mississippi Department of Transportation crews began work after midnight, spreading salt and scraping ice-slick sections of roadways.

Most of the work soon moved north of Panola County where more ice and snow had accumulated on highways.

“It was strange, places that usually have ice were clear and you had ice in places where you usually don’t,” one MDOT employee said. The Batesville MDOT office had eight trucks out with 16 men working at 7 a.m. Those working from the Batesville office joined MDOT machinery and personnel from other counties in northwest Mississippi.