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Bronson James, 6, throws a snowball to Gandy Walker Friday at Memorial Park downtown Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Kate Brasher throws a snowball at her friends Friday on Main street downtown Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Gandy Walker enjoys the snow during her walk through Memorial Park Friday downtown Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Orange tree covered in snow. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Gandy Walker hugs Bronson James, 6, while the two enjoy the snow Friday at Memorial Park downtown Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Snow scene on St. Catherine Street. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Taylor Moak laughs during a snowball fight wither her friends Friday downtown Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

Stephanie Hand walks across the street with Gavin McAdams Friday downtown Natchez. (Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

(Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

(Nicole Hester / The Natchez Democrat)

NATCHEZ — For the first time in nearly a decade, it began to look a lot like Christmas in Natchez.

The National Weather Service had many reports of 5 to 6 inches of snow falling in the Natchez area starting early Friday morning.

This falls just a few inches behind Natchez’s largest single-day snowfall record, NWS meteorologists said. That record was made on Jan. 23, 1940, when 9.5 inches of snow fell.

Meteorologists said this is one of the first measurable snowfalls this early in December in approximately eight years.

Across town, children happy for a day off from school erected snowmen and hurled the crunchy snowballs at one another.

Out on Wood Avenue around 9:30 a.m., neighbors Jayden “Scooter” Smith, 11, Telisea Broadway, 11, and Cameron Lloyd, 13, ran out on their front lawns and began a snow fight.

Broadway hid on the front porch while the boys dueled in the yard.

“I want to build a snowman,” Broadway told the boys and pointed to an undisturbed plot of snow. “That’s mine; don’t touch it.”

Smith and Lloyd said they had never seen this much snow before.

“Normally it’s just ice,” Smith said. “We never get snow like this.”

Just down the street on South Circle Drive, Armek Baldwin and his stepdaughter, Kalle, were out sightseeing.

“We’ve been playing since early morning,” Baldwin said. “It’s really incredible. We drove downtown and have been walking. This is her first time seeing snow.”

In downtown Natchez, snow piled heavily on the Main Street Christmas tree — the closest thing Natchez has had to a White Christmas since 2000.

At approximately 9 a.m., Helen Smith carried armloads of snow down Franklin Street to Natchez Coffee Company and built a little snowman on the sidewalk.

She gave him blueberry eyes, a carrot nose and smiling red apple slice for a mouth.

“I just like making snowmen,” Smith said.

Sharon Brown, owner of the Natchez Coffee Company, gave the little snowman a cup of coffee to keep him warm, though maybe not too warm.

Over on South Union Street, Sharonda Murray knelt low to pat the base of her newly constructed snowman in a well-kempt lawn.

It was not her yard, but that of one of Murray’s patients.

Murray, a hospice care worker, has been working with Mary Ann Jones for three years.

She and the 91-year-old Natchez native became friends after they met at a nursing home where Murray was training in patient care.

“She asked if I wanted to come home with her,” Murray said, “and I’ve been coming ever since.”

When Murray came to work Friday morning, she said she wanted Jones to be able to experience the snow, too — that is what brought her to kneeling in the front yard, tying a purple scarf around the neck of a little snowman.

“I just thought she’d like to see it,” Murray said. “And she was excited.”

Jones said she has lived in Natchez her whole live, as did her father and his father.

“I’ve seen snow in December, but never this much,” Jones said. “It’s such a nice surprise.”

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