Police officers were kept busy Tuesday night out on patrol. But it wasn’t criminals many of them were looking for. Instead, it was ice.

As the temperatures dropped through the night, officers stepped up patrols in the area looking for patches of ice on local bridges, including the Mississippi River bridges.

At 9:30 p.m. Tuesday night Natchez Police patrols reported small patches of ice on the Mississippi River bridge.

Police Chief Mike Mullins said the Mississippi Department of Transportation had been notified and was monitoring the situation. MDOT handles the bridge and applies de-icing products to the bridge in the case of winter weather.

“Any patrolmen with a bridge in their area will check them every 30 minutes throughout the night,” Natchez Police Chief Mike Mullins said Tuesday.

Meteorologist Steve Wilkinson said the National Weather Service in Jackson issued a winter-weather advisory for from 9 p.m. Tuesday until 9 a.m. today.

“We expect a combination of very light sleet and freezing rain overnight,” Wilkinson said.

As of press time, no local schools had canceled classes, though officials said they were closely watching weather reports.

Concordia Parish schools Superintendent Kerry Laster said she was concerned about bus travel if any ice was on the roads.

“For us in the outlying areas where we’ve got gravel, we can’t risk it,” Laster said. “We just have to err on the safe side.”

If classes are canceled for parish schools or Natchez schools, the time will have to be made up, officials said. No snow days are built in.

The predictions have changed several times in the last several days as a winter weather front moved into the area from the west.

The National Weather Service in Texas issued ice storm warnings in much of southeast Texas as they predicted 60 percent precipitation, 10 to 15 mph winds and temperatures in the lower 30s.

Tuesday, the temperature was 34 degrees and predictions were that it would drop to 30 or 31 degrees over night, Wilkinson said, which could result in a few slick spots in the bridges and over passes in the area.

“I would encourage people to take it easy and drive a little slower than normal,” Wilkinson said.

At 8:20 p.m. Tuesday, Adams County Emergency Management Director George Souderes said he spoke with Mississippi Department of Transportation officials, who used a de-icing spray on the Mississippi River and St. Catherine Creek bridges.

During the rest of the day, Wilkinson said the Miss-Lou would have a slow warm-up and the temperature would increase to 40 degrees.

For the rest of the week, Wilkinson said the Miss-Lou is expected to see light rain but temperatures would remain above freezing.

According to the Weather Channel Web site, the record high in Natchez for January was 83 degrees in 1935.

The record low for January was 4 degrees in 1940.