An arctic blast froze the MS Coast, and more cold temps are coming. Here’s the forecast

Martha Sanchez
·2 min read

Frigid air rushed from the Arctic and invaded the Mississippi Coast this week with bitter temperatures that turned rain to sleet, closed schools, roads and government buildings and coated cars and even wilting palm leaves in ice.

It was the coldest week of winter.

And it is not over yet.

Forecasters warned again on Thursday of a cold front that will begin in the evening and could send temperatures into freezing digits Friday night. Saturday night and Sunday could freeze too. Temperatures could be just higher than the bitter cold this week, said Bob Wagner, a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Slidell. “But it’s still going to be real cold.”

Here’s how low temperatures reached this week in each county.

Plants are covered in plastic and tied up outside Poppy’s in Ocean Springs on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. Freezing rain covered plants and roads with icy overnight as temperatures dipped below freezing.
Plants are covered in plastic and tied up outside Poppy’s in Ocean Springs on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. Freezing rain covered plants and roads with icy overnight as temperatures dipped below freezing.

Hancock County

The temperature hit 18 degrees around 6:50 a.m. Wednesday at Stennis International Airport near Bay St. Louis. Windchill was 10 degrees by about 8 a.m. and the airport saw a high of only 43 degrees just before 3 p.m. Wednesday.

The lowest recorded temperature at the Stennis Airport was 5 degrees in January 1995.

Ice accumulates on a palm tree at Front Beach in Ocean Springs on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. Freezing rain covered plants and roads with icy overnight as temperatures dipped below freezing.
Ice accumulates on a palm tree at Front Beach in Ocean Springs on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. Freezing rain covered plants and roads with icy overnight as temperatures dipped below freezing.

Harrison County

The Gulfport-Biloxi airport low was 20 degrees Wednesday morning. Windchill made the temperature feel like 12 degrees. Keesler Air Force Base also recorded 20 degree lows Wednesday around 6 a.m., but it was breezier and the windchill was 9 degrees.

Those temperatures were far below the average weather for the day, which usually falls somewhere between 42 and 61 degrees. The 20 degree low was just above the record set in January 2018, when the airport recorded a low of 17 degrees.

But in Saucier, Wagner said it was 16 degrees Wednesday morning.

Jackson County

Cold air blows off the water at Front Beach in Ocean Springs on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. Freezing rain covered plants and roads with icy overnight as temperatures dipped below freezing.
Cold air blows off the water at Front Beach in Ocean Springs on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. Freezing rain covered plants and roads with icy overnight as temperatures dipped below freezing.

Trent Lott Airport recorded 20 degree temperatures with 11 degree windchill just before 7 a.m. Wednesday. It warmed throughout the day and finally reached a balmy 45 degrees just before 4 p.m.

The temperatures at Trent Lott did not break the airport’s record low, which was 16 degrees in January 2014.