News Center 7 Meteorologist Rich Wirdzek is predicting a winter storm that will dump rain, sleet and snow around the Miami Valley this weekend.
“The ice and rain may make this a tough snow to measure,” Wirdzek said, “but overall accumulations are expected to be three to five inches.”
Rain will begin to mix with sleet and snow this afternoon, but most of the snow accumulations will occur in the morning, Wirdzek said.
Temperatures are expected to gradually climb to the mid-30s by afternoon but will drop back down to the 20s by nightfall.
“The roads are going to be sloppy into the afternoon (today),” Kirstie Zontini, News Center 7 Meteorologist, said. “Refreeze is possible Saturday night into Sunday morning.”
Sunday’s temperature will hold steady in the mid 20s. Monday will be partly cloudy and cold, with highs in the mid-teens. Temperatures will increase in the mid-20s Tuesday with increasing clouds and snow showers at night.
“(This weekend) could deplete quite a bit of our salt supply,” Coleman said.
Coleman started the winter with about 1,800 tons of salt, half of what he wanted due to the county not being able to buy more salt through the Ohio Department of Transportation this winter.
Therefore, the entire county has been in conservation mode, only treating hills, curves and intersections with a salt and grit mix.
Coleman said his crews will not pre-treat the roads this weekend and will most likely start shortly after the snow starts coming down.
He said he will have 13 drivers out treating roads doing up to 16-hour shifts. If the roads still need more treatment, he said the “B-Team” will come in, which consists of Coleman, other managers and the office staff at the engineer’s office.
He said his biggest concern this weekend is ice compacting on the roads.
He explained the ground is already frozen up to two feet underground, which can make rain and sleet freeze on roadways even in warmer temperatures. He added if warmer afternoon temperatures cause a wet snow that could freeze when temperatures drop later in the evening.
Coleman said if snow compacts and there is a layer of ice on county road, he would have to bring out the county’s road grader.
“We have one road grader with a serrated blade and that has to treat all 371 miles of county road,” Coleman said.
Coleman said he is hopeful that the county’s salt supply lasts this weekend’s storms and the rest of the winter, but said he has two options if it does not.
The county got a bid for 700 tons of additional salt from Cargill, priced at $106 a ton. The other more likely option would be to buy salt from a neighboring county that got a winter bid through ODOT and has salt to spare.
Coleman said he has agreements with the Union and Champaign county engineers to buy some of their salt at prices closer to $80 a ton.
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