Snow began to fall in Callaway County about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday and when Callaway County residents woke up Thursday morning they found from 7-9 inches of snow had fallen during the night.
Road crews battled the deep snow Thursday and all public schools in Callaway County were closed.
Paul Winkelmann, Callaway County highway administrator, said county road and bridge crews began plowing snow early Thursday morning.
"We knew it was going to snow all night, and we would not make any progress during the night. So everybody reported for work at 5 a.m. We didn't want to keep the crews up all night and all day, too," Winkelmann said.
"We hit it hard all day all over the county. Everything is going fairly smoothly. The snow is light and easy to move around," Winkelmann said.
He said county road crews pushed a lot of snow from blacktop roads and applied a mixture of cinders and salt, especially on curves and hills throughout the county.
"We are fortunate that the immediate forecast does not call for much more snow until Sunday. We can get after it and get the roads cleaned up as much as possible," Winkelmann said.
Winkelmann said blacktop surfaces are still snow covered even though they have been plowed. Some of the gravel roads also are still slick in places.
"Fortunately, drifting was not a big problem this time. There was not a lot of heavy wind during the night or on Thursday," Winkelmann said.
He added that the county's supply of cinders is holding up well.
"We should be fine."
"On Friday we'll be concentrating more on cindering. On Thursday we emphasized pushing the deep snow out of the road," Winkelmann said.
A heavy band of snow enveloped much of Central Missouri. By 4:30 p.m. Thursday MoDOT crews had cleared the snow from I-70 and U.S. 54 in Callaway County.
Snow still partly covered U.S. 50 east and west of Jefferson City and U.S. 54 south of Jefferson City.
The deep snow was affecting many side roads and driveways throughout the county. On Thursday afternoon, the South Callaway, Fulton, North Callaway and New Bloomfield school districts decided to cancel classes on Friday and the Jefferson City School District buses will run only on snow routes Friday in Callaway County.