Month: November 2025

Olivia Hayes

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Missouri Department of Transportation is preparing for Mid-Missouri’s first snowstorm of the season to hit this Thanksgiving weekend.

An ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather Alert Day has been issued for Friday night through Saturday for the potential for the first accumulating snowfall of the season.

The heaviest snow will fall northeast of Columbia, where 2 to 4 inches is possible in places like Macon, Moberly, Mexico, Paris and Montgomery City. A quick changeover in Boonville, Columbia and Jefferson City will bring a mix of rain and snow, and a trace to 2 inches of snow is possible.

Mostly rain is expected at the Lake of the Ozarks.

Jason Shafer, MoDOT Central District maintenance engineer, said the possibility of rain before the snow can make it harder to successfully pretreat the roads.

“Treating in advance, it’s just going to get washed off the roads. So you know we’re going to go into it being prepared for whenever the weather does change, and you know that’s still quite effective,” Shafer said.

Shafer said MoDOT uses melting salts and beet juice for its road treatments. Drivers will be rotating around the clock every 12 hours, Shafer said.

There are still several unfilled driver openings, but Shafer says the number of openings is less than in previous years.

“We’re still down statewide by several hundred,” Shafer said. “Everyone’s had very comprehensive training as far as what to do during these storms, so everyone’s prepared.”

Drivers have been training since September and October.

AAA projects 81.8 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home over the Thanksgiving holiday period. AAA projects at least 73 million people will travel by car — that’s nearly 90% of Thanksgiving travellers and an additional 1.3 million people on the road compared to last Thanksgiving. 

“If your trip normally takes you 3 hours, plan on 3.5 hours. I mean, maybe even plan for four hours,” said Jon Nelson, MoDOT’s state highway safety and traffic engineer. “I think if people go into it with the mindset like, hey, this may take a little bit more time that’s gonna help them be patient as drivers.”

Freezing air will also move in once rain and snow end Saturday evening, so any roads that are still wet or slushy will freeze by Sunday morning.

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Alison Patton

COLUMBIA (Mo.) KMIZ

Petitioners trying to get Missouri’s new congressional map on the 2026 ballot collected signatures on Black Friday as the deadline to submit approaches.

The Boone County Democratic Party posted on Facebook, requesting volunteers to sign up for shifts on the big shopping day.

This comes after Attorney General Catherine Hanaway announced her office was investigating a company that employs people to collect signatures for using illegal immigrants, which the company denies. The Republican National Committee targeted Missourians with text messages this week, saying groups from outside the state are trying to “trick” people into signing the petitions.

Marlyn Whitney, one of two people collecting signatures in the parking lot of the Shoppes at Stadium, said the petition is for the voters to approve the actions of the General Assembly.

“It just puts it on the ballot so that we the citizens can have a say in what our state legislature is doing, because we feel like we should choose our politicians, our politicians should not choose their voters,” Whitney said.

She got about 12 or 13 signatures within her first hour-and-a-half, Whitney said. Most people she talked with didn’t make a scene or were curious to know what the petition was for.

An ABC 17 reporter saw who seemed to be recording or taking pictures of Whitney, and walked off asking people not to sign the petition, saying it’s not good for Missourians.

People Not Politicians, the group backing the referendum, has to submit signatures by Dec. 11.

The Democratic Party and the League of Women Voters of Columbia-Boone County say they will wrap up signature collection by Wednesday. The Democratic Party will have a “drive-thru” style signature collection Saturday, and the League of Women Voters will be in downtown Columbia throughout the weekend.

People Not Politicians Executive Director Richard von Glahn said signature collection statewide will go through the first weekend of December.

“We will be gathering up through next weekend so that as many Missourians as possible get a chance to participate in our democracy,” von Glahn wrote in an email.

The new congressional map would carve up Missouri’s Fifth District, eliminating a seat historically held by Democrats. Republicans in the Missouri General Assembly approved the map over the summer after a White House push to secure more safe Republican seats in Congress.

Redistricting has historically been done after the census every 10 years.

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