The Piedmont's second snow storm dumped an icy mix of rain and snow. But it caused no major accidents.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS), Monday's wintry mix dropped about 3/4 to 1.5 inches of ice and snow across North Carolina. Meteorologist Jonathan Blaes says temperatures were warm enough in the mountains to where only 1-2 inches accumulated on the ground. "In the Triad, Forsyth County got between 1-1.5 inches while Guilford County got 1-2 inches," explains Blaes.
Steve Gibbs is the assistant county maintenance engineer at Division 9 with the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Division 9 covers Forsyth County. Gibbs says almost two dozen salt trucks were on the roads early this morning clearing major roadways. "We were salting and scrapping Highways 52, 40, 421, 311 and University Parkway, Silas Creek Parkway and Hanes Mall Blvd.," explains Gibbs. He says residents in the eastern part of the county; including Kernersville, Walkertown and Belews Creek, saw the bulk of the frozen mix Tuesday morning. According to Gibbs, "The combination of morning traffic, road salt and rising temperatures helped make roads less hazardous."
But it's only warming up into the low 40's and shady areas may conceal black ice. Shawn Scott is a transportation supervisor at Division 9. Monday afternoon during the storm, WFDD's Kathryn Mobley rode with him in one of the state's large, yellow salt trucks. He compared this storm to the one that hit the Triad February 19. "I like this one because its given us a little more time and the snow is not as heavy even though this snow is wet," explains Scott. "In terms of dealing with slick roads, that other storm, the snow piled up on us so quick we could not stay in front of it. But we were in better shape this time. In was slower and we had more time to put down salt and clear off the roads so the public could move around, just more slowly."
This is a relief to most NCDOT divisions in our state concerned because there is a national shortage of road salt. When Division 9 is at full capacity, it has 3,000 tons at its Cherry Street truck yard in Winston-Salem. Right now, the silo has only about 1,300 tons. County Maintenance Engineer Gary Neal says between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, a total of 50 salt trucks were on the streets. Each truck only carried 2.5 to 5 tons of salt. Neal says it was enough to handle the March 3 storm, but he's not confident they would have enough if a major event similar to February 19 happened.
However winter isn't over yet. NWS Meteorologist Blaes says he and others are closely watching another storm system expected to move into the Piedmont sometime Thursday evening or very early Friday morning. Blaes they expect wet snow in the mountains and cold rain in the Piedmont.
