By Alyssa Schnugg

Panola County will likely see its first snowfall of the year Monday and, according to the National Weather Service, there will be plenty of the white stuff, enough to make snowmen and snow angels.

There is currently a Winter Storm Watch in effect for most of north Mississippi, including Batesville, Sardis, Como, Pope and Courtland starting at noon on Sunday through 6 a.m. on Tuesday.

Saturday is expected to be cold but sunny with the high expected to reach 45 degrees and the low dropping to about 17 degrees tonight.

Sunday should see intermittent sunshine that will decrease as clouds roll into the area. The high for Sunday should only hit about 25 degrees and drop to 18 degrees overnight.

Snow is expected to begin sometime after midnight early Monday morning. The heaviest snowfall is expected to begin around 7 a.m. and continue throughout the day until about 7 p.m. on Monday.

The NWS is forecasting that Panola County could see anywhere from 4 to 6 inches; however, those predictions can change depending on where the snow bands set up.

With the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday, area schools and most city, county and federal businesses will already be closed for the day. Area schools will be monitoring the weather and will announce any delayed openings or closures for Tuesday on their social media channels and text messaging systems.

Along with snow, the temperatures will drop significantly over the next few days, dropping down into single digits at night.

Monday’s high is expected to be 26 degrees with a low of 10 degrees. On Tuesday, the high is forecast to be just 21 degrees with the low forecast to drop down to 3 degrees.

Wednesday will be a bit warmer with a high near 31 degrees and a low of 17 degrees.

The below-freezing temperatures could cause any snow to remain on the ground for a few days and along with snow, often comes ice after the snow begins to melt and then refreezes at night when the temperatures drop down below freezing, which is expected to occur throughout most of the week, according to the NWS.